


What's with the blue hair?

by agathamarinho14



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Next-Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-26 07:42:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12054417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agathamarinho14/pseuds/agathamarinho14
Summary: Teddy Lupin is not a normal kid. A methamorphmagus with werewolve genes and the Godson of the savior of the wizarding world. It goes without saying thaat his experience at Hogwarts will never be normal, but then again, when is aanything "normal" at Hogwarts? Selected T for language lol I suck at summaries





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Lol this took quite a long time.
> 
> So here it goes, the first chapter. I have mixed feeling about this, but I like it enough. I hope you guys like it, and I plan on doing more chapters, but I procrastinate and get dismotivated, so reviews are always a motivation booster, so if you like the story review away :)
> 
> Also, please mind that english is not my first language and i'm writing on the shittiest keyboard ever, so bear withe me. I know there are a lot of grammar errors, and I tried to fix them, but I'm lazy so I knw that I didn't get even half of them, so please chill.

Teddy watched as the countryside ran past the window with an ever present feeling of dread in his guts. He had waited for this day since he old enough to understand what Hogwarts was, but now that this day had finally come he felt so...insecure? Yeah, that was the word. He didn't know why, but he started getting this feeling as soon as people started staring at his hair which was, at the moment, a vibrant shade of blue. People always stared, wherever he went, and he was always pretty confident about it, but something wasn't feeling right and he hid himself in the first compartment he saw.

Of course, he told his Grandmother and Godfather that he was fine, just a tad bit nervous. Of course, the fact that his Godfather was Harry Potter didn't quite help with the staring.

Sure, he was happy to finally be going to Hogwarts. He was ecstatic when he had received his letter and he couldn't shut up about it for a week, but now that the real things was happening he couldn't stop thinking about worst cases scenarios.

What if people only hanged out with him because his godfather was the famous Harry Potter? What if people avoided him all together because his dad was a werewolf? What if he got so nervous and his har turned a hideous color on the sorting? He could control it better now, but accidents happened and whenever he was nervous he couldn't really help it changing.

And sure, he didn't need to tell people aabout his parents f he didn't want to, but they would eventually figure it out. People lerned about the Wizarding Wars, and consequentually about the Order of the Phoenix. It didn't take a genius to Figure out who were his parents. And Teddy felt bad about not wanting peole to know who his parents were.

Ugh, this train ride was giving him too much time to think about bad things and they probably weren't even out of London yet.

"You're not about to come sit in my compartment! Go find your own! Go on with your friends, I don't care!" Teddy heard someone say harshly from the other side of the door. He straned his ears, feeling a bit bad for trying to listen in a conversation.

"We don't have any yet, you git! You're our brother!" He heard a high pitch voice, probably from a girl. She also seemed younger than the first voice.

"Well then go make some, I dunno, it's not my problem. And just because I'm your brother it doesn't mean I want you to be in the same compartment as me, you are embarrasing." The first voice said and suddenly someone lunged the door open. "Hey, are you the only one here?"

Teddy took a moment to respond. There were three people there, a tall guy that didn't look so happy about something and two shorter kids tht looked about Teddy's age. The girl looked livid and the boy glared at the older one. Their resemblance was obvious.

"Er...yeah," Tedy said unsurely and the older one looked relieved, He shoved the the other two into the compartment.

"Great. That's Olivia, this is Oliver and I'm Jack. See, It ain't that hard to find your own company," He said to his siblings. "I'll see you at Hogwarts, bye. Nice hair by the way, kid." Teddy blushed slightly the Jack left the compartment. The three of them stayed in an awkward slience for a minute before Olivia spoke first.

"Um...sorry for that intrusion, our brother is a brat," She put a strand of curly hair behind her ear and grabbed Oliver's hand. "We'll leave-"

"Oh no, you can stay!" Tedy said, sounding a bit more excited that he had meant. He faked a cough and hoped the two of them hand't noticed. "I mean, if you want to." The siblings smiled at Teddy and just now e realized how strikingly similar the two of them looked. They had the same height, the same tanned skin, the same curly hair and even their eyes were the same hazel-greenish color. No doubt they were twins.

"Thanks Mate, that's nice of you," Oliver finally said. Theys sat across from Teddy. "What's you name by the way?"

"I'm Teddy," He said. He felt immensely relieved. He was getting desperate for company, and the two of them seemed nice enough.

"Nice to meet you, Teddy." Said Olivia in a cheerful tone. Teddy felt his hair abou to change and before he could really do anything about it the set of twins looked at him like he had just grown a third head. Damnit! Why couldn't he be normal for once?

"Er..."

"Did...did your hair just go from blue to black?" Olivia gaped and Teddy blushed madly. Being a Methamorphmagus was a great advantage in many ways, if you knew how to control it of course. If you didn't quite have the haang of it however it could be embarrasing at times.

"I'm a methamorphmagus." Teddy said quickly and realisation downed on Olivia's face while Oliver looked even more confused.

"Are you really? That's quite-"

"What's a meth...watever you said?" Oliver asked. "What? I doesn't hurt to ask!" He said to his sister who impatiently rolled her eyes at him.

"Honestly, Oliver, the books mom gives us aren't for decoration!" She snapped and sighed. The corners of Teddy's mouth twitched. Olivia did sound a lot like Hermione.

"Yeah, whatever, can you tell what that means?"

"It mean that Teddy has the ability to change his apperance if he wants to. It's really rare and it's mostly passed down genetically. But it's still quite unlikely that someone with methamorphmagi would have a methamorphmagus child. There's only been a handful of these people on the past century, and of course all of them have to be registered on the ministry of magic." She said all this sentence in one breth and Teddy was impressed, Yeah, she definitely was like aunt Hermione.

She resorted to glare at her brother. "Of course, if you had even bothered to read 'The various differences of WizardKind' you would know all this." Oliver rolled his eyes, but ignored her laast assesment.

"I can't really control it though,"Teddy said and when both twins looked at him puzzled he went on. "I mean, I can kind ok keeping my hair from changing too often, and If concentrate really hard I can make it swithc colors, but if I'l nervous or really excited it kinda changes on it's own accord."

"Oh," The twin said in unisom.

"It doesn't take away from the fact that it still kicks arse though," Oliver said with a grin and Olivia nodded.

"It totally doesn't. If I had the ability to change my hair-" They never had a chance to know what Oliviaa wold do because rght at this moment the trolley lady had appeared on the door fram and immeaditely Teddy searched his pockets for the money his Gran had given to him.

He bought two pumpkin pasties, two chocolate cauldrons and a Bertie Bott's every flavored beans. He was starving, even though he had eaten breakfast. He didn't know if it was his werewolf genes or if he just had a really fast methabolism, but he got really hungry really fast. He still managed to be fit though, so it probably didn't affect him.

Oliver and Olivia helped themselves with a few sweets, but Oliver seemed fa more interested in hos Chocolate Frog card.

"Oh! I got Harry Potter! I never got one of those!" He beamed as he watched the little Harry wave and smile at him. "That's my first one from the Order of the Phoenix edition. Have you got any?" Teddy had the full order of the phoenix collection. Even some repeated, but he was not about to tell them that his extensive honorary family were the saviors of the wizarding world.

"Uh, yeah A few."

"Man, I'd love to meet one of them. They're so badass! Especially Harry. I mean, come one, the dude died and came back to life! He must be so cool!" Oliver said excitedly, examining his card. Teddy thought about Harry back home, doind some horrible puns and eating pickles with peanut butter and three in the morning wearing nothing but his boxers. He had to stifle a laugh.

"I think I saw him and Ginny Weasley on the platform," Olivia said. "i was going to go up to them and I dunno, ask for an autograph or something, but the trains was about to leave." She frowned, but soon she had an excited expression back on. "Oh! But Jack told me that he comes to give speeches on Defenes Against the Dark Arts sometimes!"

"Don't believe everything Jacks says," Oliver said, a bit darkly. "Who you got, anyway?" Teddy was glad to change the subject. He wasn't sure he would open up about his family anytime soon, not with how excited the two of them got anyway. Olivia unwrapped her frog and cringed at the card.

"Ugh, I got Bellatrix Lestrange." Teddy's blood ran cold and he tensed up. "Why would they even put people of the likes of her in the cards?! She's so...despicable!"

"Well, it's not really about who's mean and who's kind, is it? I mean, Salazar Slytherin was a horrid man- He put a blood-thirsty snake at Hogwarts just to kill muggleborns for Merlin's sake! But still he was a great powerfull wizard. I'm not saying it takes away from the fact that he was horrible, mind." Said Oliver. This conversation was taking a turn that Teddy was liking.

"Salazar Slytherin was one of the Founders, Oliver! Of course he was brilliant. But Lestrange? What the hell did she even do to earn a place on the cards?" She started reading the baack of the card. "Look, she Tortured people to insanity! She killed her own niece for christ's sake!"

"But I mean, She was the Voldemort's strongest supporter and she never thought about leaving his side, even when she was at Azkaban. Of course she was evil and crazy, but you can't deny that she was incredibly loyal and skilled." Oliver stated. Olivia shrugged, putting the card aside.

"I suppose. Still don't want her in my collection though. Teddy? Re you okay? You seem awfully quiet." Teddy looked at her and Oliver frantically. Both of them looked worried.

"I'm fine! Just thinking about something. Er..." He neeed some fresh air. Yeah, that would do him good. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom, I'll be right back." and he stormed out of the compartment.

He needed to learn to not get so worked up whenever someone mentioned that woman. He needed to get a grip of himself. He needed to-

-watch where he was going.

Teddy crashed into someone so hard that the both of them fell on their arses. He looked up to see a tiny little girl with mousy brown hair, who didn't even look old enoguh to be t Hogwarts frantically pick up wherever she was holding.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" Teddy said, raising himself off the floor. "I wasn't watching where I was going." He helped the girl with her things and helped her up.

"Oh, it's okay," She said quietly, her eyes never leaving the ground. "I-uh s-should've watched where I was going too." She stammeres and Teddy frowned. "Thank you," She said as she grabbed her book from Teddy and sped out past him.

...Okay?

Teddy started walking through the train, feeling a bit beter. Bellatrix Lestrange was always a touchy subject with his family. She killed her mother, she killed Sirius Black, she almost killed Ginny...

How could someone be so...so evil? He only knew about her because Harry thought that it was necessary for Teddy to know a bit about the war. Sure, he would learn about it in his third year, but everyone knew about the Wizarding Wars, if only just a little.

He settled himself next to a window and watched as the countryside turned into aa blur. He would have to make something up for Oliver and Olivia. He didn't want a pity party before even getting into Hogwarts.

"Teddy?" Teddy heaar an almost familiar voice and before he could even turn to see who it was a girl was emracing him in a bone crushing hug. "Teddy! How long it's been!" The girl pulled apart and Teddy almost didn't recognized who it was, but the trademark puffy black hair put up in a neat bun gave it away.

"...Melinda?" Apart from Victoire, Melinda Pines was one of the other few friends Teddy had that were his age. They met at the Ministry's daycare since MElinda's dad worked with Harry. They were quite the friends when they were little but they haven't talked for a long time.

"Yours truly! How wonderful to see you! I didn't realize you would be starting Hogwarts this year!" He gave him a once over. She was still taller than Teddy, but just by a few inches now. "You've grown!"

"So have you," Teddy grinned. Melinda had ths power over people, she could make everyone happy with only a blink of her eye. Teddy noticed that she was already in her robes and he also noticed the red and gold tie that decorated her neck. "Gryffindor, then?" She nodded excitedly andthey began walking through the train.

"I didn't relize you were starting this year. so what house Do you think you'll end up in?" Teddy thought for a moment. He really wanted to be in gryffindor, but was he really brave enough to be one? He didn't like the dark, or heights, and he peed himself once watching a muggle horror movie. Yeah, no. He didn't think he was smart enough to be in ravenclaw and slytherin...ugh.

It wasn't like he was prejudiced against slytherin, He just wasn't very fond of the house. Most people he knew who ended up in slytherin were...well...unpleasent. Except Andromeda of course, but Aunt Narcissa and Draco...

"I think I'll end up in Hufflepuff." He said honestly. "It was my mom's house after all, I think it's the right fit for me."

"Oh, the sorting hat almost put me in hufflepuff too, but it decided to put me in Gryffindor at the end. Everyone says that hufflepuff is the house of misfits and airheads, but the most lovely people I know what hogwarts are hufflepuffs. Not everyone is nice, mind," A dark expression washed over her face so quickly that Teddy wondered if he had imagined it. "But most people are nice."

They reached her compartment and they bid goodbye to each other. Teddy walked happily back to his own, feeling much better. Melinda was always a nice person to be around.

He got back to hsi compartment and both Oliver and Oliviaa looked sheepish. "Oh Teddy," Olivia started. "Did I say something wrong? I'm sorry, I know I tend to babble-"

"No it's okay, it's just," Teddy had to choose his next words very carefully. He didn't want to give away too much but he also didn't want Olivia to feel guilty. "Look, it's just a touchy subject, ain't it? I just don't feel too comfortable talking about...her. But it's okay, you didn't know." Teddy smiled at her and she bit her lip. She looked genuinely concerned.

"Er... Who's up to some Exploding Snaps?" Oliver said in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood and Teddy was glad. They began playing and Teddy was so happy people so nice to be around from the very start. All his worries from earlier seemed rather silly now.

"Teddy!" He heard someone say. Teddy's eyes snapped open and he noticed that it was already dark outside. "Teddy wake up!" Olivia shook his shoulder haarshly. "We're almost at Hogwarts!" Teddy then noticed that both Oliver and Olivia had their robes on already. Ugh, how long did he sleep for?

"Put your robes on," Olivia demanded aand Teddy was a bit taken aback, but didn't say anything. He frantically searched for his robes on his trunk put them over his muggle clothes, there wasn't time to change.

The train came to a stop and the three of them hopped out of it. IT had started to drizzle and Teddy couldn't really make out anything through the darkness.

"Firs' year wi' me! Firs' years!" Teddy hear aa deep familiar voice. He had met Hagrid before, but they rarely ever saw each other. The three of them made ther way to the giant man who was squinting throught the darkness.

"Oi! Hagrid!" Teddy said loudly and the giant man smiled whidely when he noticed him, patting him on the back so hard that He almost fell over.

"Teddy! I been wonderin' when I'd see ye here!" Hagrid looked at the twins, who loked between confused and intrigued by the half-giant. "Already made some friends, I see!" Teddy blushed, but you couldn't see it through the darkness.

"Oh, sorry. Hagrid, this is Oliver and Olivia. I met them at the train." Hagrid shook both of the twins's hands, it made them almost bounce with Hagrid's signifcant strenght, but they didn't look half annoyed.

"Nice ta meet ye two. We can get up to chat later, off with ye now, pick a boat." He said and quickly his attention went back to the rest of the first years.

"Is he like a half giant or something? He must be at least eight feet tall! How do you know him, Teddy?" Oliver said excitedly, looking frantically from Hagrid to Teddy.

"Oh, he's and old family friend, I never really got a chance to know him that well, but he is nice enough." Teddy said. He smiled as he looked aat the half-giant and remebered all the stories that Harry told him. Teddy was really looking forward for an opportunity to have a chat with him once he got to Hogwarts.

Suddenly with a jolt the boat started floating through the waters. For a moment they stayed mesmerized, looking at the dar starry night. It had stopped raining a bit. Teddy almsot missed the frst glimpese of Hogwarts if it weren't for a loud squeak from Olivia, who was biting her lip do hard Teddy was afraid it would draw blood.

"I'm so excited! I've been waiting for ths moment since-"

"-You were old enough to crawl. It's only the hundreth time you've said that." Oliver said mockingly, but Olivia didn't seem to hear or care for what he said. She smiled from eaar to ear nd for the frst time Teddy noticed the slight gap between her front teeth.

"Oh I'm so excited about the sorting! I do hope I get into Ravenclaw, mom and dad would be so proud, wouldn't they?" She said excitedly and Oliver nodded. Teddy notced that a dark look lingered in Oliver's eyes and his mouth was set in a straight line. He didn't seem as excited as Olivia...he seemed to be dreading somethiing.

"You are bound to get in Ravenclaw." Oliver muttered, more to himelf than anything.

"What's got you wand in a knot?" Olivia asked, looking at her brother intrigued.

"Nothing, just forget it." Oliver said, looking to the distance. He bit his lip and Teddy noticed he fidgeted with his fngers a lot. What's got him so nervous? Sure, everyone got anxious on the sorting, but why did it seem like he was dreading it?

Teddy didn't have much time to dwell on it, as a few moments later they were escorted inside the castle. For the first time Teddy noticed the lack of first years. He thought there would be at least something like a hundred people to be sorted, but there were barely more than twenty, and they all easily fit in one room.

"Wasn't there supposed to be more people?" Oliver seemed to read Teddy's mind as he looked around the room. "I always thought that the sorting would be this big thing with like, hundreds of poeple."

"It's not surprising really, if you think about it," Olivia said, passing a hand through her hair and flattening it out a bit.

"What d'you mean?"

"We were all born at the peak of the second wizarding war after all. How many people never even got the chance to have a baby before they died? I'll bet that most people here are muggleborns." An expression of pure pity washed over her face. "I mean, we're lucky to have our parents, you know? When you think about how many people lost a family member that they didn't even got a chance to meet...not to mention the people who were orphaned..."

Teddy swallowed a lump that had suddenly constricted on his throat. Teddy was one of them and Olivia didn't even know that. He shook his head- he was not about to get bummed out moments before his sorting.

And, as if on cue, a tall man, whom Teddy recognized instatly, entered the room with a big smile. Neville Longbottom was always one of Teddy's favorite adults. He was jsut really nice to talk to and really kind to everyone, he also showed that even if you're not the most brilliant mind or not tha bravest soul, you still were capable of achieving many great things.

"Good evening everyone, and welcome to Hogwarts. I'm Professor Longbottom, the head of the Gryffindor house and your herbology teacher. Your sorting wll beging in a few, but in the meantime I'll explain a few things to you," He said with a kind smile on his face.

He explained briefly the concept of houses and a few rules before smiling at the audience of first years. "Any questions?" When nobody spoke up Professor Longbottom nodded. "Well, I'll come fetch you when we're ready in just a bit." He said and left the room.

"Oh, it's so exciting to have classes with a member of the Order, even if it is Herbology!" Olivia said grinning. Teddy noticed that Olivia was almost bursting from excitement about the sorting. He decidded not to comment on that.

"What's the problem with Herbology?"

"Well, it's a bit dull, isn't it? You just learn about plants. I'm really excited about Potions though, and DADA!" Her eyes seemed to sparkle by the prospect of having classes and Teddy couldn't help but smirk.

Oliver and Olivia were an odd pair. As much as they were alike, they were different, but Teddy was really happy to stick around with them, they were nice people.

After a few moments Professor Longbottom came back to escort them to the Great Hall. The first thing Teddy looked for was the enchanted ceiling that mirroed the night sky. The hall was beautiful and cozy. Teddy felt a great weight lift from his shoulders as he realized that the house he ended up in didn't matter. What really mttered was that he got to go to Hogwarts after all.

Professor McGonagall stood tall at the Teacher's table. Teddy had probably seen her once before in his life when she had attended a ministry party where Harry had brought tedy along. She seemed very strict, but at the same time she had something to her that made Teddy feel good.

"Good evening, Fisrt years," She said with a small smile before moving on. "I am Professor McGonagall, your headmistress. Today you will be sorted into your Hogwarts houses. I trust Professor Longbottom has already gone through a few groound rules," Neville nodded politely to her. "So let's not wait any further." She nodded to Professor Longbottom who stood up and looked at a piece of parchment in his hand. Only now did Teddy notice the stool and beaten old hat that could be clearly seen by everyone at the hall. He just hoped his hair didn't switch before he could get control over it.

"Antoinette, Amanda." Neville called and a tall, freckled girl with long jet-black hair strutted to the stool. The hat was placed on her head and with a few moments of consideration decided to put her on Gryffindor. The table on the far left clapped loudly and she walked there with a smirk.

After a few more people were sorted Teddy noticed how quiet Oliver had suddenly went. Olivia was talking animatedly to girl besides her but Oliver seemed like he had taken a turn for the worst. "Mate," Teddy put a hand on Oliver's shoulder, which tensed up, but Oliver didn't meet Teddy's eyes. "Are you...Are you alright?" Oliver shook his head, making his curls bounce as he stared to the floor.

"I'm not gonna make it to Ravenclaw," He mumbled and Teddy almost didn't catch it. "I'm not gonna make it to Ravenclaw, but Olivia will because her and Jack are smart and I'm a fucking dumbass," Oliver made a sound from the back of his throat that was something between a groan and a whimper and covered his face with his hands.

"Mate, I really don't think it's that big of a-" Teddy started but he was cut off by the next name Neville called.

"Lupin, Edward!" Teddy almost didn't go. He never went by 'Edward' but soon enough the engines started working on his brain again. He walked up to the stool rather quickly and Neville winked at him. Teddy grinned as the hat was set in his head.

"My! Time does fly!" A drawled voice said inside his head, catching him off guard. "I remember sorting your parents like it was yesterday. But today is about you, what house wil you be..." Teddy's stomach tightened almost uncomfortable on his belly.

"Mmh, I don't see much of a Ravenclaw in you, You don't have a bad mind, but it's not quite the fit...I see quite a bit of selfless in you, just like your father, but also a great deal of passion like your mother. You wouldn't think twice about putting yourself in danger for the people you love, am I correct?"

"Yes sir!" Teddy thought and the hat sort of nodded.

"Very well, you value your true friends and you're loyal to the bone. You have a potentioal of being in gryffindor, but I think the best fit is- HUFFLEPUFF!" The last part was yelled loudly for all the great hall to hear. The second table on the left burst into applause and Teddy's hair, without him wanting to, wen't from bright turquoise to canary yellow.

Shit. The hall was so silent you could hear aa pin drop and everyone looked at him gobsmacked. Teddy's face flushed crimson red, but before he could really be to embarrased the Hufflepuff table once again burst (into louder) applause. Teddy was sure he could hear someone yell 'We got a methamorphmagus' but he didn't care. He smield widely, maybe he wasn't a freak after all.

He shaked hands with a fair amount of people, but most of them couldn't stop goggling at his hair. It was a bit annoying but Teddy's happiness overshadowed it. He could almost hear Andromeda saying how proud his mother would be.

And then, soon enough, it was Oliver's turn. Teddy looked up tp find his friend walking to the stool with a terrified look on his face. He looked like he was about to barf right then and there, but thankfully that didn't happen. The hat was put on his head and Oliver looked at the Ravenclaw table at the far left side of the hall. Teddy noticed that Jack was looking at his brother in an almost reassuring way. Maybe he wasn't just the git that had thrown his siblings inside his compartment after all.

A few agonizing moments later the hat said, in all hs glory: "HUFFLEPUFF" Oliver looked sick to his stomach, he looked two feet tall, but he quickly mustered an obviously fake smile and walked up to the cheering table. Teddy looked at Jack who seemed somewhere in between disappointed and worried about his little brother. Oliver sat besides Teddy, a smile stamped to his face as he shook hands with everyone. Teddy saw the mix of sadness and desperaation n his eyes, like he was dreading something awful, but he didn't quite got the time to acknowledge it before "Murphy, Olivia" Was called. Oliver didn't even look the way to the stool and Teddy couldn't quite blame him. It was obvious Olivia would be aa Ravenclaw like their older brother, and apparently that was big deal to them.

Olivia had her eyes closed her mouth set in a thin line. Her eyebrows quirked up sometimes and he wondered what the hat was telling her. This was taking longer than any other sorting, and from the look on McGonagall's face that wasn't soemthing usual. Even Oliver looked up with a confused expression. Finally, after about five minutes the hat, obviously begrundgily annouced that she was a hufflepuff. Oliver's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets and Teddy saw that Jack mimicked the same expression.

Olivia skipped happily to the huflepuff. Teddy was beyond confused. Didn't she crave to be a Ravenclaw? Olivia sat across from her brother and greeted everyone who was nearby. Oliver opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, resembling greatly a fish and after a few gobsmakced moments he finally settled with. "The fuck, Olivia?"

"Well, I suppose the hat is full of surprises, isn't it? Now stop looking so dumbstruck, pay attention to the sorting!" She said with a smile and turned her head as a stocky boy called Theodore Muss was sorted into Slytherin and a chubby girl called Annabeth Phelps wsc also sorted into hufflepuff.

There was definitely something weird about this. Firstly, why the hat took so long to decde in which house she would end up in, and secondly, why on Merlin did she end up in hufflepuff? She seemed to be a Ravenclaw through and through, not to mention the fact that she wanted to be one. Teddy saw the look of pure happiness that Oliver had and decided not to say anything. He hmself was really happy that both his new friends were in his house.

"Yaxley, Eleanor." Was the last girl to be sorted and immeaditely after Professor Longbottom called her name the hall went so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

The great hall filled with whispers and everyone goggled at the girl as she made her way to the stool. She avoided any eye contanct, her thick bangs making a good job at keeping her face hidden. The hat was put on her hair and she eyed the slyhterin table with a longing, and almost desperate, look. Teddy recognized her from the crash at the train earlier, but he didn't understand why people were whispering- what was her deal?

"Hufflepuff!" The hat announced afer mere second and she bit her lip, making her way to the table which clapped with some uncertainty and hesitance. Even the teachers looked rather dumbstruck, Olivia and Oliver both looked wide eyed at yhe girl, much like the rest of the table. Teddy felt bad for her.

"Why is everyone goggling at her?" He whispered to Olivia but before he got an answer as Professor McGonagall raised herself to her feet.

"Well, as everyone had alreaady been sorted, I which to go through a few ground rules. The Forbidden Forest is well, forbidden to any students, no students besides the prefects and Head Boy and Girl are permitted out of their common room after curfew and you can find enclosed at Mr. Butley, our caretaker, office a full list of all the objects that are out of bounds for any students to posess." McGonagal for once left her strict manner and smiled at all the students.

"Let the feast begin!" She said, and with a flick of her wands the tables all filled with mountains of food. That Yaxley girl had completely gone off his mind now as he tuffed hs face with all sorts of foods. Everything just tasted so...heavenly. Gran would probably throw him all sorts of dirty looks because of his "manners at the table" or something like tht, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"I am completely stuffed!" Oliver said with a smile, patting hiis stomach as they made their way to the common room., following the line of hufflepuffs.

"I second that. My stomach feels like it's about to explode but I don't regret it one bit." Teddy said grinning. Olivia rolled her eyes at the two of them, but still had an amused smile on her face.

The prefects lead the way of the common room, Teddy found t quite funny that the password was merely tapping a rythym on the wooden door, and everyone got in. The room felt cozy and welcoming, with honey colored wood work, a nice fireplace and the yellow and black of the house decoraating everything.

"Okay, can the first years come over here please?" Said one of the prefects. Teddy, Oliver, Olivia, the girl Olivia was chatting to and Yaxley all looked up to her, the girl smiled at them. "I hope you're happy to join our house. I'm Evie and this is my buddy Tom," She winked at the other prefect who grinned.

"So, let's go through a few rules, shall we?" Said Tom, in the same cheery tone as Evie. "First things first: Boys are not allowed in the girl's dormitory. I mean, you can try, but the staircases will turn into a slippery slide before you even get to the first step," He laughed and nodded to Olivia when she raised her hand.

"Are girls allowed on the boy's dormitories?"

"Er..." The two prefects shared exasperated looks. "If you're asking if the slides will turni into slides, no, they won't, but that doesn't mean you should go there. Moving on," He said, eager to change the subject. It seemed like he had given more informaton than he should.

"Our second rule is no bullying. We hufflepuffs take pride in being the most tolerant and kind house, and we stick together like a faamily, so bullying is extremely frowned upon over here, especially wth your fellow hufflepuffs. But I know you guys won't do this, you look like nice kids," He smiled at them with a wink.

"Now, on a lighter note," Said Evie. "Overe there is our bulletin board. We put reminders and if you like you can write nice motivational letters or maybe, i dunno, an anonymous message," She gave cheekysmile. "Oh, and when you get the time add your name and birth date to the birthdays list."

"The what?" The girl Teddy didn't know the name yet asked.

"The birthday list. Our house has this traditition to keep track of everyone's birthday, so everybody remembers. It's a nice thing to know that people remember your birthday, so why not?" Said Tom, reaching deep into his robe pockets and gettin a quill and some parchment. "Just write it down and we will charm it to the list later." Everyone wrote their birthdays and handed the parchment and quill back to Tom. Teddy was quite liking the hufflepuff house already.

They got sent off to their dormitories and Teddy had just realized that Oliver was his only roomate. "Weird," He commented as got into the room. "I know we were the only boys sorted into hufflepuff, but I always thought that I would share it with like five other people."

"Yeah, me too," Said Oliver. "But I'm not complaining, I mean, can you imagine sharing a bathroom with other five people?" The two boys laughed. Yeah, Teddy assumed ut wouldn't be the most pleasent experience. Oliver went to shower first and Teddy started putting away the things on his trunks. He put a framed photograph of him and Andromeda on his bedside table. Most of his things were still on his trunk and he decided he couldn't be bothered to put away everything now.

Oliver emerged from the steamy bathroom wearing nothing but a towel rolled on hiis waist and teddy went to take a calming shower. For a strange reason he couldn't vividly remember the sorting, even though it happened less than an hour ago. Maybe it was because a hundred thoughts buzzed into is head, but one thing was sure, he felt a weird sense of comfort about being sorted into Hufflepuff.

He had wanted to be a Gryffindor, like Harry, Ron and essentially the majority of the Weasley clan. He wanted to be in the house of the brave, but deep down he knew he wasn't quite the fit.

Teddy wasn't cowardly, but he thought before he acted, and that was something that seemed to lack within the Gryffindors he had met, even the adults. But he was happy to be a hufflepuff, like his mom. Now that he thought about it, he preffered loyal and friendly than stupidly brave and reckless ayway.

He finished his shower and changed into some comfortable muggle clothes. "Hey, Let's go down to the common room, Olivia is waiting for us," Oliver announced. They made their way to the common room to find Olivia chatting animatedly with the same girl while writing something on her parchment.

"Oh hey guys!" She said, as she noticed they had arrived. "Did you get to meet Anna here? She's one of my roomates," The chubby girl waved at them both. Teddy thought she had an odd appearence to say the least. She had shoulder lenght brown hair, a skin marked with acne, big square glasses and a set of somewhat protuberant aand crooked teeth that quite stood out when she smiled.

" 'Sup. You're Oliver and you're Teddy, right?" She said pointing at them. "Nice to meet ya," She eyed them, stopping momentarily at Teddy's hair but then moving on. Well, she seemed nice enough. Teddyand Oliver greeted her and sat down on nearby chairs.

"Who are you writing to?" Oliver's expression twisted as he read the paper. " 'Dear mom and dad, me and Ollie didn't end up in Ravenclaw like we were hoping, but instead hufflepuff blah blah blah.'Ohc'mon Liv, can't we wait until tomorrow to breake for them the "incredible" news?" Oliver asked and Olivia sighed heavily, resting the quill on the table.

"Look, Oliver, would you rather mom and dad knowng through us first or Jack? I'm not going to send t now aanyway, I'll just give it to Hoot first thing in the morning."

"Wait, you have an owl named "Hoot"?" Anna snorted. "Now that's creative." Teddy chuckled at the girl's irony. Olivia blushed and looked back to the letter and Oliver grinned.

"Olivia named it. It's supposed to be ours, but My dear sister isn't really fond of birds, so she's basically mine. I tried to change her name but she won't go by anything else."

"It's because she likes the name Oliver, it suits her, and besides, it's not that I don't like birds, they don't like me."

"You and your irrational fear of birds," Oliver rolled his eyes and Teddy and Anna watched intrigued the bickering between the siblings. It was funnier thn he would care to admit.

"It's not bloody irrational!" Olivia snapped, starlting the other. "Do you remember when we first got Hoot, what she did to my hair? Or those pidgeons at the park that kept chasing after me!"

"Whatever you say, sis." Oliver said with an amused grin followed by a long yawn. "I think I'm calling it a night. You coming, Ted?"

"Yeah, good night girls," They bd each other goodnight and Teddy followed Oliver to their dormitories. They changed into their pijamas and chatted a bit before falling silent.

Teddy was happy, he had managed to make friends, meet an old friend, eat that marvellous feast and it wasn't even his official full day yet. He drifted to sleet lookng at the framed photo of his grandma kissing his rosy cheek, the ghost of a smile still on his face.


	2. The Jet Black Owl

Teddy woke up to the obnoxious sound of the alarm clock going off. He groaned internally, why did it have to be so early? Teddy hated waking up early and he was the exact opposite of a morning person, but when something clicked on his head he jumped from the bed. This was his official first day, his first day of lessos, of meeting people form other houses, of being a real Hogwarts student, and these thoughts made his hair turn into a shockingly bright yellow.

“Oliver! Mate! Wake up!” He shook Oliver’s shoulder, who at this point had decided to cover hsi ear with his pillow. The boy groaned, telling Teddy that he was awake and Teddy happily fetched his robes. He felt a sudden wave of pride wash over him as he tied his black and yellow tie. He quickly morfed his hair into a nice sandy brown and left the dormitory, Oliver dragging himself behind him.

“How can you be so hyped up at seven in the morning?” Oliver grumbled behind him and Teddy snorted.

“It’s just the first day’s high, tomorrow I’ll be as useless in the morning as you are right now.” Oliver glared at Teddy but the boy just grinned.

“Oi, you two!” They heard a familiar voice and turned to see Evie waving at them. They made their way to the prefect and Oliver seemed to change his composure suddenly. “Edward and Oliver, right?” They both nodded and the girl smiled, flashing them with a set of perfectly alligned teeth. She fumbled with some papers before handing the two of them their timetables.

“Thanks,” They both said. “You know, you can call me Teddy. Everyone calls me that,” He half smiled at her and she nodded solemly.

“Okay then, Teddy. Now hurry along you two, you don’t want to miss breakfast. And have a good first day!” She smiled at them before turning to a bunch of second year girls. The two boys made their way out of the common room and Teddy noticed the light blush creeping on hs friend’s face.

“Somebody’s got a crush eh?” He teased Oliver, whose cheeks went from light pink to bright scarlet, even under his darker complexion.

“Shut up, you git.” Oliver said, glaring at Teddy, but still with an amused smirked. “But she’s so gorgeous! And sweet and-” Oliver said, rather dreamily.

“Out of your league,” Teddy completed, earning a dirty look. “What?! I’m just being realistic. You’re eleven and she is fifteen, not to mention that I think that her and Tom are a thing, but hey, what do I know,”

“Whatever, just don’t tell Olivia. I’ll never hear the end of it,”

“Not a word from me,” Teddy replied with a grin as they entered the great hall. It took a moment to catch the girl’s on the hufflepuff table, but soon enough they saw them and started walking on their direction. Teddy sat besides Anna while oliver sat with his sister.

“Good morning,” They muttered before helping themselves with breakfast. Teddy, Obviously, went for bacon and the sausages. He loved meat for some reason. Andromeda always said that it wasn’t healthy for him to eat such oily and heavy things early in the morning, but he was healthy nd he couldn’t care less.

“What?” He said when he noticed the other three staring at him wolfing down his plate with mild amusement.

“No offense Teddy,” Anna started, hildong back a laugh. “But you eat like a dog.”

“None taken,” He winked at her and the four burst laughing, earning confused looks from people near by. Teddy looked around the table and he noticed that that Yaxley girl was sitting all by herself at the far end of the table, frowning at a piece of toast. “Hey, what’s the deal with Yaxley?”  
“I dunno,” Anna shrugged. “We asked if she wanted to seat with us but she just mumbled something unintelligible and made a beeline to the end of the table, and yesterday when we went up to our dorm she was already asleep. I don’t know why everyone keeps staring at her though, is she like, faamous on the wizarding community or something?” The twins shared an uncomfortable look.

“Um...Well...you could say that,” Olivia said quietly before taking a bite off her sandwich.

“Well, what do you mean?” Said Teddy impatiently. Oliver sighed and looked at him with a serious expression.

“Her parents were death eaters, Teddy.” Teddy’s mouth was agape as he raised an eyebrow, but when he didn’t say anything Oliver went on. “Corban Yaxley was one of the most vile, most loyal death eaters, and he was within Voldemort’s inner circle. He died at the Battle.” Okay, he wasn’t expecting that. He grimaced as he looked back at the girl. Even though she most likely wasn’t dark herself Teddy could only imagine how hard it must be to have such bad people linked to you.

“Um guys? I don’t wanna sound stupid but...what are death eaters?” Anna said and they all stared at her.

“You’re a muggleborn?” Teddy aasked and she nodded, a tinge of red covering her cheeks. “No need to be embarrased,” He added.

“Death Eaters are like magical nazis, but they hate muggleborns and muggles instead of jews and people of color and etc.” Olivia said, rather uncomfortably. Teddy had no idea what ‘nazis’ were, but he could only imagine they were horrible people.

“And they followed this guy called Voldemort who was like the magical Hitler, but he died at the battle of Hogwarts that happened eleven years ago at hands of Harry Potter, but don’t worry,” He said quickly seeing the look of fear and worry on the other girl’s face. “Most of them are either locked up or dead, and only lunatics think muggleborns are any less capable than pure of half-bloods.” 

“Oh” Anna said, not really sounding that reassured, but she didn’t go any further. Teddy was surprised, yeah sure, he didn’t know the name of most death eaters, only Bellatrix Lestrange and Antonin Dolohov, who had killed his parents, but now he realized that Harry never really mentioned names. He never asked though, he knew how it made him upset. 

The only time Teddy had seen him cryiing was when they were talking about the war after all.

“Umm...Anyway,” Oliver said, trying to cut the dense silence that had formed out of nowhere. “What’s our schedule?”

“Oh right,” Olivia said, looking relieved to change the subject. Even the next generation after the war was uncomfortable with the subject and jus recently did people actually started to use Voldemort’s name. “Er, we got double potions first followed by Herbology, double DADA, then lunch and history of magic and astronomy.” She said with a smile on her face. Teddy was really looking forward for today. He was especially excited about Potions, even though he was quite clumsy he still found the subject as a whole really interesting.

“When do we get to fly?” Oliver said, jumping up and down on his chair wth excitement. Teddy snorted at him.

“Only Friday, but look,” Olivia said as her brother frowned. “At least is a double period!”

“Ugh, I can I already see myself running head first into a tree or something. Either that or i won’t even manage to get the broom up,” Anna shook her head besides Teddy, running a hand through her hair.

“Oh, don’t think like this,” Olivia said. “It sure is hard to get the hang of t the first time, hell, I still haven’t got the hang of it, but with a teacher it will be easier. Besides, they’ll only start with easy things like going through a hoop or something.”  
“No, you don’t understand, I’m the most useless person at sports ever, and like, I haven’t even touched a bloody broomstick before, so that’s going to be fun...” They laughed and started chatting about quidditch for the remainder of breakfast, Teddy and Oliver going through the basics with Anna.

“Breakfast’s almost over. Shall we go to the Owlery before class starts?” Oliver inquired and Teddy nodded. He hadn’t written to his family yet, but he figured he could do it in between classes and then find the time to owl them out. It’s not like they would see it right now anyway, Harry and Gran worked and Vic had tutoring in the mornings.

“Um, you guys can go on ahead, I’ll save us seats on Potions, here’s the letter.” She said, before throwing the folded parchment to Oliver and dashing out of the Great Hall.

“But Olivia!” Oliver called out, but the girls was already out. “Oh for fuck’s sake,” He sighed before pocketing the letter and standing up. 

“Why is she so afraid of birds?” Anna inquired and Teddy looked at oliver, feeling curious himself. Oliver sighed and shook his head.

“when we were little our parents brought us to the park and, i don’t remember why, but this herd of pidgeons started attacking and flying after her and we were on a muggle park so my parents couldn’t just vanish them away, so she got scratched up pretty badly. It was pretty bad, but I thought she had got over this ages ago. Also Hoot doesn’t really like her either, but just because Olivia fears her. That Owl is sensitive as hell.” They laughed and made their waay to the Owlery.

“Wow!” Anna gasped as she looked around the hundreds of owls hooting and chirping. “I have never seen that many owls in my whole life! They are so gorgeous!” She mused and in an instant a jet black owl with bright green eyes placed herself on Oliver’s shoulder. If Teddy could guess it she was one hell of an expensive owl. The ones that weren’t flecked or anything were always the more pricey ones, not to mention that the owl was gorgeous.

“Oh, hey Hootie!” Oliver cooed as he scratched the owl’s head. The Owl stared at Teddy and the boy could swear he felt her eye pierce into him, almost as if scanning him. He gulped, feeling oddly nervous and then she hooted and went to Teddy’s shoulder instead. “Oh, she likes you,” Oliver said, sounding relieved. Teddy scratched the owl’s head while Oliver tied the letter to her leg.

“Got anything to send off?” He asked and Teddy shook his head, saying he would write later that day. Oliver nodded, tying up the letter to the owl’s leg.

“Send this to mom and dad, won’t you?” Oliver said in a voice you would usually only use wiith babies and really cute puppies. “Yeah you will! Who’s a good Owl?” Hoot hooted in approval and fled the Owlery. Teddy and Anna, who was transfixed by the owls until that point stared at him, and it didn’t take long for the two of them to burst out laughing. Oliver rolled his eyes and left the Owlery, the other two teasing him from behind.

“Okay, I get it!” He snapped at they entered Hogwarts once again. “I treat my Owl like a baby! Can we please bloody get a move on now? Look,” He looked at the big clock in front of the school. “Oh crap, we gotta hurry up if we don’t wannaa be late.” They ran inside, making their way to the dungeons.

Teddy didn’t quite know what happened, but on his mad dash, and being the clumsy shit he was he tripped on his undone shoelaces and fell. He was saved from falling face first on the hard floor by landing on something rather soft and warm. Just as quickly he realized that that ‘something’ was rather someone.

“Merlin! I’m so so sorry mate,” He stood up and offered a hand to the guy. He was significantly taller than him, but he didn’t look that much older. He was big and round and didn’t look at all welcoming. Tedy thought he looked a lot like a pug dog, but he didn’t reproduce his thoughts out loud.

“My shoelaces were undone and I just fell, I’m too clumsy for my own good,” He laughed awkwardly but stopped himself when he saw the look on the guy’s face. He offered his hand, but recoiled it when the bigger lad stood up on his own. “Er...” Teddy scrathed the back of his neck. “We should really get going then,” He pushed his friends forward. “Sorry again,” He said before quickly walking to the direction of the Potions classroom.

“Nice going, Ted,” Anna hissed and Teddy muttered an apology before they turned a corner, and, just as suddenly as he had fallen for a a first time, a pair of big hands shoved his back and he found himsefl falling a second time, Oliver catching him just before he hit the ground.

“What the hell did you do that for?” Anna spat at him. “Are you alright?” Teddy nodded, embarrased.

“D’ya think you can just shove on me like that and walk away?” He said, getting dangerously close to Teddy, who gulped but kept his pousure. With a sinking feeling on his gut he realied they were the only ones in the halway and if he decided to do something to them no one would be able to do anything.

What a nice, calm way to start his first day.

“He tripped!” “He apologized!” Oliver and Anna said at the same time. Teddy couldn’t help but feel a great deal of gratittude towards his friends, who were so quick to stand by his side, but hell would freeze over before he let them get hurt because of him. He put himself between them, unnoticeably making hmself a few inches taller.

“Look, it was accident. Why would I fall on you on purpouse?” Teddy looked at the boy, trying not to look intimidating, but also not afraid either. 

“What’s your name?” He asked and Teddy looked at him confusedly.

“Teddy Lupin,” He said and the guy raised an eyebrow.

“Lupin, eh?” He studied Teddy much like Hoot had, but he felt ten times more uncomfortable. “Do ya have any idea who I am?” 

“Now what the hell is going on here?” A new voice was added and Teddy felt immesely relieved when he saw Melinda approached them, wand in hand. “Why don’t you find someone your size to bully, Moreas? Are you that pathetic?” She growled at him, but the boy merely rolled his eyes.

“Oh fuck off, Pines. Don’t tell me you’re gonna go a defend that half-breed,” Melinda mouth was agape and Teddy just didn’t jump on the guy Because Oliver restrained him. Teddy was aware that Melinda knew about his heritage, but how in the hell did that bloke know? And beng called “half-breed” was extremely offensive in itself.

“Sod off before I call your daddy here,” She spat and Teddy could feel he tense up before leaving. “Git. Did he do anything to you? Are you guys alright.”

“Yeah,” Teddy said wth a smile. “Thanks, to you.”

“Don’t mention it, Ted. What’s a friend for?” She smiled back at him and held up her hand for the other two who had been watching the scene rather confusedly. 

“Oh, Anna, Oliver, that’s Melinda, she’s an old friend of mine.” The puffy haired girl smiled politely at them. “So what’s the deal with that prick?”

“Oh,” Melinda’s face seemed to darken. “That’s Henry Moreas, he’s a brat in my year. He thinks he’s the shit just because his dad is the defense teacher and has influence at the ministry, so he can basically do whatever he wants and no one would say anything about it,” She glowered. 

“So how come he was so afraid of you?” Oliver asked, and Teddy knew Melinda was holding back a smirk.

“Well, my uncle is the head of the school board, so that idiot knows not to cross my line. Not that i would be as pathetic as get my uncle involved like he would, but he is scared nonetheless.” She chuckled and looked at her wrist watch. “Shit, we’re five minutes late for first period. I’ll catch up to you later, bye!” She said as she ran to the opposite direction. 

The three kids ran as fast as their legs could carry down to the potion’s classroom, their faces flushed and their breath ragged. The whole class turned to lok at them and Olivia had an annoyed expression on her face. 

“W-We are sorry, Professor,” Oliver said when he managed to get his breath under control. “We uh-got lost.” He said, rather uncertainly, but the teacher merely smiled and nodded for them to sit down.

“Don’t you worry, I figured at least one first year would loose their track on their way. After all,this castle isn’t exactly easy to figure out in your first day, huh? With all the changing staicases and everything, just make sure it doesn’t happen again.” She nodded her head and they sat down. Anna sat besides Olivia while Oliver and Teddy sat with each other.

“Now,” She looked at the name call. “Mr. Murphy, Mr. Lupin and Miss Preston, am I correct?” The three of them nodded.

“Okay then, I’m professor Leroy and I’m the potions master at this school. I’m also the head of the slytherin house.” She smiled at them and Teddy smiled back. She seemed like a nice lady. “Now, let’s go back to where we left of, shall we?”

He waved her wand nd a bunch of words appeared on the chalk board. “No, don’t copy that now,” She said, as everbody gathered their quills and parchment. “I wanted to go over a few things before we get started. How many of you are muggleborns?”

Teddy was surprised at how many people raised their hands, and Teddy couldn’t help but think that Olivia was right; the vast majority of the first years were muggleborns. H shuddered as he thought about the reason to that.

“Okay, well, Potions is a tricky subject. You’ve gotta know the exact meaasurements, the exact amounts and exactly whata to do, or else you could have disastrous results in return,” Teddy’s stomahc dropped. Being the clumsy fuck he was there was no way he’d ever be able to do anything right, and he was so excited about potions...

“But, not to worry,” The woman said. “I’ll guide you way, my pupils. And I’ll make sure you succeed. Of course, mistakes are unevitable, but I’ll make sure you learn from them.” She gave a toothy, genuine smile to the class of mesmerized students. “And now, that being said, I want you to copy down this and we’ll move on to our first assignment.”

Teddy was sure he would grow to like her. She was extravagant, sure, but she had a good vibe to her. He could only hope the oher professors would be like her.

When he and the rest of the class finished copying down everything on the chalk board Professor Leroy went to fetch a a bunny. The bunny would be cute if he wasn’t covered in boils. “Now, class, say hi to Bucky here. He’ll be our guinea pig for today. You’ll be required work in pairs on a cure for boils, which you can findo on page twenty.” Evryone turned thwir textbooks to page twenty and professor Leroy went on.

“I’ll test everyone’s potions, grade it, and whoever manages to to the best one earns their house five points. Now, begin!” She said with a swish of her wand and immediatey all ingredients necessary were summoned on their desk. 

Quickly Teddy and Oliver set to work. Teddy crushed the snake fangs while Oliver chopped the horned slugs, both of them in silent agreement of what to do, and, quite quickly, they were finished with their potions. 

“Is it supposed to look like that?” Oliver asked. The potion was a pretty, ruby color. Teddy read the instructions.  
“ ‘When finished you boil cure should have a bright red color, much like a ruby, a ocasionlly bubble up.’ Yeah, think so,” Teddy grinned at Oliver who grinned back. Had them just aced their first potions assignment? They high fived each other and then glanced at the girls on the table besides them.

“It doesn’t look right. It says it’s supposed to be a nice red color, but it straight up looks like puke.” Anna grumbled and Teddy looked at their cauldron. Yeah, she wasn’t wrong.

“Did you guys put the right scales?” Oliver asked them, looking with disgust to the cauldron. “It says it’s supposed to be mermaid scales, not fish scales.”

“We put the right ones! I just don’t understand-” There was an explosion on the cauldron, and Anna, who had her face close to the pot, was drenched in greenishh-yellow goo. She started screaming and pus-filled red boils started to appear all through her face and neck.

“ARGH! IT HURTS!” She screamed, which aroused the attention of all of the students. Anna raised her hands to her faceand Teddy and Oliver promplty went to their table, not really knowing what to do.

“Oh dear,” Said Professor Leroy, who was by their side in an instant. “You two probably didn’t take the cauldron off the fire when you added the crushed fangs, did you? Miss Murphy, please escort Miss Preston to the Hosital Wing?” Olivia nodded and lead Anna out of the room.

Teddy could not believe his ears when he hear someone snickering from a table a feww seats behind. He had pretty good hearing so it was easy to listen in to the converstation.

“Not much of a difference, is it?” He heard a girl that recognize from the sortiing giggle. “I for one already thought she had boils covering her face. I mean, you could fry an egg with the amount of oil in that girl’s forehead.” The girls snickered and Teddy glared to no one in particular. He hated mean people, and Anna wasn’t even here to defend herself.

“That, kids, is what happens when you don’t follow the steps throughly.” The Professor sighed. “Poor girl, having boils grow on your face is not exactly pleasent...”

After a few more minutes the tests started. Two identical slytherin twn girls were up first. The bunny had only start to sneeze uncomtrollaby for a minute before it stopped.

“Oh, not this time girls, sorry.” Professor Leroy said sheepishly and the girls frowned and went back to their table. One of the looked at Teddy and their eyes met for a second before she quickly turned away and started whispering to her sister’s ear. Teddy frowned, that was weird.

“Seems like somebody’s got a crush on you,” Oliver whispered to his ear and Teddy raised an eyebrow. What was he talking about?

“What?” Teddy questioned but he never got a response as professor Leroy called them next.

“huh, that looks good, boys,” she praised and fed the bunny the potion. After aa few moments his boils vanished and Teddy and oliver hig five once again. “Alright! I’m afraid you two perfected it!” The professor beamed at them and they went back to ttheir seat. 

With a swish of her wand the boils were back on the poor bunny’s face. “he show must continue, I’m afraid. Miss Miller and Mr. Jackson please,” and two slytherins Teddy didn’t know went to the front just as Olivia entered the room.

“How is she?” Teddy asked as Olivia sat on her seat.

“Not good, but Madam Pomfrey said she would be okay to go by next period.” Oliviaa sighed and she looked at the now half empty cauldron of puke-like substance that sat on her desk. “That blows.” She said and Teddy nodded sympathetically.

Soon everyone in the classroom tested their potions and they had about five minutes left. “Okay,” Professor Leroy said to the class. “I am very proud of everyone, of course there were some mishaps,” She glanced quickly aat Olivia who lowered her head. “But that was completely understandable, but overall I’d say you were pretty good for the first day.” She smiled at the class.

“Now, Which pair won the five points?” She scanned the room, creating suspense, Teddy his fingers crossed under the desk. “Mr. Lupin and Mr. Murphy!” She said excitedly and Teddy’s hair suddenly went from sandy brown to blue in excitement and he couldn’t bring himself to care.

He was not expecting that, he thought he would be rubbish at potions, but here he was, doing a perfectly good job at it on his very first day. He could see that Oliver felt the same. Olivia looked dumbstruck and Teddy remebered she wasn’t there to see their potions perform.

Her awed expression turned into a smile and she looked proudly at her brother. He looked back and there was a silent interaction between the two that Teddy could only assumed was twin telepathy.

And then the class ended.

“Man, I still can’t believe it. We aced that shit mate!” Oliver smiled from ear to ear, he was quite pleased with himself. “Where are we headed to next?”

“Herbology,” Olivia said and they headed to the outdoors. It was a beautiful breezy day, not overly hot, just nice. They headed to the greenhouse where they would be having classes with the gryffindors. Teddy was excited about herbology, not for the subject in itself, but because of Neville, who he had to remind himself to call Professor Longbottom.

“Good morning children,” He said brightly, smilng at them. “As you may recall I’m Professor Longbottom, your Herbology master and head of the gryffindor house. Now, I know that a lot of you might think as Herbology as a dull and useless subject, but this subject is much more deeper than the study of plants,” He said.

“For example, it is necessary for you to have a good base in herbology to suceed in potions, not to mention telling apart something poisonous from something that isn’t and-” Neville was cut off by Anna, who looked extremely red in the face, making her entrance on the greenhouse.

She scowled, looking at the floor and he walked up to Professor Longbottom and handed him a note, and she quietly made her way to her friends. “Are you alright?” Olivia asked when she sat down.

“yeah, apart from the fact that my face exploded in painful boils and Madam Pomfrey put an ointment that burns like a motherfucker and now my face is as red as a tomato. Peachy,” She grumbled. Teddy would be quite pissed off too if it happened to him.

“Well, as I was saying, Herbology is as important as any other subject, but today, as it turns out, we will not be learning about plants. Wands out, if you please.” The class looked confused, but did as they were told.

“Today we will learn how to cas the spell ‘incedio’. This spell is used to cast flames, therefore, setting things alight. Our assignmetn for the remainder of the term will be to plant and take care of Devil’s Snare, which I’ll get to later, and knowing how to cast ths spell is necessary.” 

“Cool,” Anna whispered. Her face was almost back to it’s normal color now and she didn’t look as irritated anymore.

“Okay, watch me do it first,” He said and the whole class payed close attentio to Neville. He had a pot of something that looked like green tentacles. “This, everyone, is Devil’s snare. With the slightest of movements it could- do this!” He said, suddenly grasping the plant. In instants the plant wrapped itself tightly on Neville’s wrist. The whole class gasped, but Neville merely chuckled.  
“The more you move, the more it’ll latch to you, so if you ever find yourself in a sticky situation the best you can do is stay calm because it’ll eventually detach itself, but say you’re quite nervous-” Neville started to move his hand fast, making the Devil snare tangle around to up to his elbow. “And you just can’t stop moving. Tht’s when ‘incendio’ is useful. Now, pay attention, kids,”

Neville swished his wand in a quick motion and pointed it to the root of the plant. “Incendio!” a jet of flames shot from the tip of his wand and the plant detached fom Neville’s arm and shrivelled back to the pot. “You’ve got to be careful with this spell. I don’t expect you to produce anything more than sparks, but either way, be careful. We don’t want anyone’s robes catchin on fire, do we?” He said and the class chuckled.

For the first half of the class nobody could produce nothing, but then they slowly progressed to a few sparks but nothing more than that. Teddy was already getting quite frustrated.

“Well done!” Neville praised Olivia as she managed to produce a flame. T wasn’t much bigger than a the one of a match, but it was still steady. “Congratulations miss-?”

“Murphy, sir. Olivia Murphy!” She said, smiling, not taking her hazel eyes off the little flame.

“Right. Well, if I’m any judge I’d say Hufflepuff deserves a few points, huh?” Olivia looked up at the Professor, the flame dying out and if possible she smiled even wider.

“Good job, Liv!” Oliver patted his sister’s back. 

“Yeah, nice one,” Teddy smiled at the girl. No one managed to do any more real flames however, and sooner than expected, the period had ended. 

“Professor Longbottom is so cool!” Oliver stated and the group agreed. “He jokes around and all! Well, Professor Leroy is nice too, so so far so good, huh?”

Unfortunately they didn’t have such luck with Defense.

Turns out that the DADA teacher was Henry Moreas father, and said boy had already told his dad all about Teddy and his friends, because as soon as he saw his face he glared, and did not make things half easy for the group, not that they really did much in class as the Professor only made them copy off the chalk board.

Teddy was done, he was usually quick with writing anyways, so he started working on his letter to his grandmother. 

Dear Gran,

So, I’ve made it to Hufflepuff! Not gryffindor like I wanted to, but I’m glad to be in this house. I realize now that it fits me better anyway, and also I think I’d prefer being loyal and friendly than stupidly brave haha (don’t tell Harry- or aany of the Weasleys that!!)

Also, I’ve made some friends and they’re all in my house! There’s Oliver and Olivia who I met at the train and they’re really nice. They’re twins, but they’re like the complete opposite from each other, personality wise. If I’m honest they remind me a bit of Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione. 

There’s also Anna, We haven’t chatted all that much, but she’s pretty cool! She seems a bit hot-headed but she’s nice. Oh, I also met up with Melinda! Do you remember her?

My first day has been nice so far, me and Oliver earned five points to hufflepuff on potions, so tht was nice, and Neville is a really nice teacher!

Send everybody my love, tell Harry and Vic I’ll write to them as soon as I can and I hope you’re not missing me too much already. ;)

Lots of Love,

Teddy.

Teddy folded the piece of parchment and put it in his robes pocket, he’d send it later after lunch. 

The class ended and Teddy was starving at that pont. He quickly gathered his things, urging to go to lunch but Professor Moreas stopped him.

“Not so fast,” He glared at the group. “I want to have a chat with you four.” Olivia looked confuse, but the other three knew exactly what this is about.

“I’ve heard about the little incident you had with my son earlier today,” He said, calmly but Teddy could still sense the anger on his voice. Teddy just now realized how strikingly similar son and father looked.

“Sir, If I may explain-” Teddy started, but was cut off.

“No you may not.” The Professor said curtly.

“But-” 

“I don’t want to hear it. Just know that if you try anything else with my son ever again you’ll haave me to answer to, and I assure you won’t like that.” He said, his voice low, which send a chill down Teddy’s spine. “I hope that this little gang of yours won’t cause anymore trouble.”

“Off with you,” He said to the other three. “I want to have a private word with Mr. Lupin,” They seemed hesitant, but a sharp look from the teacher made them leave the room.

“Professor-”

“Save it, Lupin,” He snarled, making Teddy shrink. “I know who you are, nd you will not be corrupting my son,”

“What do you mean, sir?” Teddy was throughouly confused. What the hell did he mean?

“For your information, before I came to teach defense I worked at the ministry, in the magical beasts control area,” Teddy’s stomach dropped. Even though he wasn’t a ‘magical beast’ himself, his name was still there, somewhere, marked as “potentially dangerous” just because his dad was a werewolve.

“And for me it doesn’t matter what they say, you still have werewolf blood, you’re still a beast.” He said, barely above a whisper. Even though it hurt Teddy, he still wouldn’t show it.

“I don’t want you, or your gang of trouble makers near my son, understood? If I hear as much as a whisper that you’ve been giving Henry trouble, I’ll make sure that things won’t go easy on you.” Teddy raised an eyebrow at the middle aged man and smirked. “What is so funny?”

“Oh, nothing,” He said grinning. “I’m just sure Harry Potter, my godfather, would love to hear about our little conversation, wouldn’t he? Or maybe aunt Hermione? You know, the minister for magic.” the Professor seemed to pale, but kept his compusre, but Teddy could see right through him.

“I assure you, Professor, that me and my “gang” won’t go look for your son, if anything we want distance from him, but if he comes looking for us than there’s nothing I can do.” He slung his bag over his shoulder. “May I go now, Sir?” Professor Moreaas nodded gruffly to the door and Teddy left.

Of course, he didn’t plan on Telling Harry or Hermione anything, but it was good knowing he had that lously techer wrapped around his finger. But he would be lying if he said he didn’t feel uncomfortable talking like that to someone, especially a teacher.

He called you a beast, Teddy. He had to remind himself. He deserves it.

“What the hell was that all about?” Olivia asked, rather angrily, as they walked to the great hall. Oliver and Anna explained her everything, from Teddy falling on him from Melinda going to their rescue.

“Honestly...I’m not at all excited to meet that guy,” She said as shuddering.  
“Hopefully we don’t have to run in a lot. Moreas did tell our “gang” to stay away from his dear son.” Oliver chuckled.

“Gang huh? We’re not here for as long as 24 hours and we’re already in a gang. Mom and dad would be proud, wouldn’t they?” Olivia said and they laughed.

“Teddy? You alright?” Anna asked her friend, making the eys of the group turn to him. “You haven’t said anything since we left the class,” Teddy looked at her for a moment before he nodded slowly.

Truth was he was still mulling over what Moreas had said. That he aand his father were beasts, how Henry had called him a “half-breed”. Nobody had ever said such things to Teddy, but then again, the only people Teddy knew were either friends of the family or the Weasleys themselves, and Remus was a dear friend of all of them. Was that what people really thought about his dad? He knew that lot of people were prejudiced, but he thought this was something of the past.

“Are you sure mate?” Oliver asked with concern. You haven’t even served yourself, and your hair went white all of a sudden.” Teddy only now realized that everyone already had food on their plate and his was the only one still empty. Suddenly he didn’t feel as hungry anymore. Teddy ran a hand through his hair, turning it a nice blue again as started putting food on his plate.

“Yeah, I was just thinking about something, don’t worry I’m good.” He smiled at them. Nd started tucking in.

“What did Moreas want with you anyway?” Anna asked and Teddy shrugged. Now that he knew that prejudice was still a things he was much more hesitant to open up about his heritage.

“Nothing important. He old me to get away from his son and blah blah blah. I just don’t think he’s very fond of me,” Teddy chuckled slightly.

“Can I ask you something?” Oliver said, rather catiiously.

“Shoot.”

“What did Henry mean when he called you a half-breed?” Teddy almost choked on his food while Olivia dropped her for, not believing her ears.

“He called you a what?” She shrieked, arousing the attention of a few people nearby. “Teddy that’s highly offensive! You’ve got to tell someone!”

“Tone it down a bit,” He said, looking around. Soon everyone went back to their conversation. “Look, I don’t know okay? It’s probably because I’m a methamorphmagus. You know how some people are about even the slightes mutations. And I’m not telling anyone, it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does!” She hissed. “That’s just as bad as calling someone the “M” word!”

“Olivia, what good will it be?” Oliver said, irritably. “His dad is a teahcer, remember? It’s his word against ours.”

“But-”

“Look, just drop it. It’s our first day, I don’t want to start drama this early into the term.”

Olivia looked like she wanted to retaliate, but she istead merely just sighed and went back to her food.

“It’s your choice, I guess.” She said, Her eyes widening as she looked up at the ceiling ans sure enough Hoot, in all her jet-black graceness, came soaring up the sky, dropping a letter into Oliver hand aand resting into his shoulder.

“Thank you, Hootie,” Oliver praised, giving her a piece of bread. The owl hooted and fled oit of the great hall.

“That was quick,” Teddy commented.

“Yeah, we live here in Scotland.” olivia said, tearing the envelope open.

“Oh, I didn’t realized you’re scottish, you don’t have much of an accent,” Anna commented, but Olivia and Oliver shook their heads.

“We’re not scottish, we’re from London.” Olivia said, as her eyes went through the parchment. Teddy noticed the frown that deepened as she read each line.

“We moved here because my dad didn’t want to leave my grandma alone after my grandfather passed away,” Oliver looked over to his sister who had just finished reading the letter. “What does the letter say?” Oliver said anxiously, snatching the letter from her hand before she could protest. 

Oliver bit his lower lip as he went through the lines. “Bloody typical,” He muttered, more to himself than to anyone. He handed the letter back to Olivia who looked at him almost sheepishly. There was tension between the two and Teddy could sense it from where he was sitting.

“Oliver, won’t you come with me to the owlery? I finished the letter I’ve got to send off.” Teddy said. Oliver looked at him thankfully before the two of them made their way out of school.

Teddy noticed how Oliver’s jaw clenched and his knuckles were white from balling his fists too hard.

“So, wanna tell me what’s got your wand in a knot?” Teddy asked and Oliver shrugged.

“My fucking parents man...I love them, but sometimes I just wished...” He sighed, crossing his arms on his chest. “I dunno, they’re difficult people.” He stated. Teddy nodded. He didn’t want to be too invasive, after all he didn’t know the boy for so long.

“Was this about you and Olivia not being in Ravenclaw?” Teddy asked as they got to the owlery. Oliver nodded slowly, keeping his eyes trained on Hoot, who at the moment was too busy eting to pay attention to them.

“They have a way to make me feel inferior, even if she ended in the same house as I did, it’s just so frustating,” He said, Teddy frowned as he tied his letter to a flecked school owl. “She’s the apple of my parents eyes, an I thought that maybe...maybe they wouldn’t treat us so differently after the sorting,” Oliver wasn’t looking up anymore, instead keeping his eyes trained on his shoes.

“Why is it such a big deal anyway?” Teddy asked as the two of them watched as the owl soared away. Oliver sighed and stayed in silence for a moment. Teddy wondered if he should have asked anythng at all, but then Oliver spoke up.

“I come from a family of geniuses, and for the generation the Murphys have always been in Ravenclaw. My family takes pride in it, you know? And Jack might be an asshole, but he learned to count before he could even walk properly, Olivia learned how to write and read when we weren’t even fully potty-trained and even my little sister who at six reads a book per week,” There was a pause and Oliver looked down yet again. Teddy noticed he waas blushing.

“and then there’s me, the dumb ass of the family,”

“You’re not-” Teddy said instinctevley, but Oliver cut him off.

“Save it,” Oliver didn’t meet Teddy’s eyes. “I was always behind them, I realize that. And they say things, and they don’t even realize they’re offensive lke ‘we expected this from your brother, Olivia, but not from you’ or ‘let’s be realistic, honey, you’re not going to end up in ravenclaw’ “ Oliver huffed and fidgeted with his hands. “I just wished I could prove them wrong.”

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of, mate.” Teddy smiled at him and, despite himself, Oliver smiled back.

“And look, being different doesn’t mean being bad, don’t let you parents make you think that way,” Teddy said. “I mean hell, you’re talking to the kid whose hair changes when he’s too nervous, I’m as different as it gets,” They laughed. Teddy was glad he was able to lift Oliver’s mood.

“Let’s get back before lunch ends,” Oliver said and the two left the owlery. The girls were still at the table when they got back to the great hall, and Olivia nodded at her brother in a meaningful way.

The rest of the day wans’t exactly eventful. Both History of Magic and astronomy bore Teddy out of his mind and after a painfully long time it was finally dinner time. Teddy was positvely starving now since he had barely eaten lunch.

“Don’t choke,” Oliver teased and Teddy rolled his eyes with a smirk. After the four of them were fed they made their way to the common room. 

‘Well, today was good, everything considered,” Teddy commented and the others agreed.

“Still can’t believe how lousy our defense teacher is,” Olivia grumbled. “I mean, the best subject with the worst teacher. That’s got to be ironic,” They laughed and suddenly the door to the common room opened and Eleanor rushed inside. She was breathing heavily, almost panting as she looked down like she always did.

“Eleanor, is everything alright?” Olivia asked the girl, who quickly wiped her face with her hand and nodded.

“Y-yeah, everything -is g-great,” She stammered, and she looked up briefly, flashing a quick smile and storming to the girl’s dormitory. She clearly had been crying and Teddy felt a bit bad for her.

“What happened to her?” Oliver asked, half concerned and anna shrugged, but her eyes were still trained on the girl’s dormitory door.

“I dunno. Yesterday I thought I could hear her crying too, at like three in the morning,” Anna looked uncomfortable. “Should we check on her?”

“I dunno,” Olivia sighed. “Well I mean, we have the whole freaking night to talk if she wants to.” 

“I say you leave her be,” Oliver said. “people don’t like being pushed, ya know? Besides, you barely talk to the girl.”

“We’re her roomates!”

“So?” Oliver said before leaning back into his seat. “I haven’t seen her all day and she’s supposed to be in same classes as us. Maybe she just likes to keep to herself. I dunno, she’s kinda weird.”

“What’d you mean?” Teddy asked and Oliver shrugged.

“I dunno, she just...seems off, I guess.” Well, he wasn’t wrong, Teddy thought. Even at their first encounter at the train Teddy thought the girl was a bit strange. But not exactly in a bad way either.

But then again, none of them was exactly “normal.”Teddy woke up to the obnoxious sound of the alarm clock going off. He groaned internally, why did it have to be so early? Teddy hated waking up early and he was the exact opposite of a morning person, but when something clicked on his head he jumped from the bed. This was his official first day, his first day of lessos, of meeting people form other houses, of being a real Hogwarts student, and these thoughts made his hair turn into a shockingly bright yellow.

“Oliver! Mate! Wake up!” He shook Oliver’s shoulder, who at this point had decided to cover hsi ear with his pillow. The boy groaned, telling Teddy that he was awake and Teddy happily fetched his robes. He felt a sudden wave of pride wash over him as he tied his black and yellow tie. He quickly morfed his hair into a nice sandy brown and left the dormitory, Oliver dragging himself behind him.

“How can you be so hyped up at seven in the morning?” Oliver grumbled behind him and Teddy snorted.

“It’s just the first day’s high, tomorrow I’ll be as useless in the morning as you are right now.” Oliver glared at Teddy but the boy just grinned.

“Oi, you two!” They heard a familiar voice and turned to see Evie waving at them. They made their way to the prefect and Oliver seemed to change his composure suddenly. “Edward and Oliver, right?” They both nodded and the girl smiled, flashing them with a set of perfectly alligned teeth. She fumbled with some papers before handing the two of them their timetables.

“Thanks,” They both said. “You know, you can call me Teddy. Everyone calls me that,” He half smiled at her and she nodded solemly.

“Okay then, Teddy. Now hurry along you two, you don’t want to miss breakfast. And have a good first day!” She smiled at them before turning to a bunch of second year girls. The two boys made their way out of the common room and Teddy noticed the light blush creeping on hs friend’s face.

“Somebody’s got a crush eh?” He teased Oliver, whose cheeks went from light pink to bright scarlet, even under his darker complexion.

“Shut up, you git.” Oliver said, glaring at Teddy, but still with an amused smirked. “But she’s so gorgeous! And sweet and-” Oliver said, rather dreamily.

“Out of your league,” Teddy completed, earning a dirty look. “What?! I’m just being realistic. You’re eleven and she is fifteen, not to mention that I think that her and Tom are a thing, but hey, what do I know,”

“Whatever, just don’t tell Olivia. I’ll never hear the end of it,”

“Not a word from me,” Teddy replied with a grin as they entered the great hall. It took a moment to catch the girl’s on the hufflepuff table, but soon enough they saw them and started walking on their direction. Teddy sat besides Anna while oliver sat with his sister.

“Good morning,” They muttered before helping themselves with breakfast. Teddy, Obviously, went for bacon and the sausages. He loved meat for some reason. Andromeda always said that it wasn’t healthy for him to eat such oily and heavy things early in the morning, but he was healthy nd he couldn’t care less.

“What?” He said when he noticed the other three staring at him wolfing down his plate with mild amusement.

“No offense Teddy,” Anna started, hildong back a laugh. “But you eat like a dog.”

“None taken,” He winked at her and the four burst laughing, earning confused looks from people near by. Teddy looked around the table and he noticed that that Yaxley girl was sitting all by herself at the far end of the table, frowning at a piece of toast. “Hey, what’s the deal with Yaxley?”  
“I dunno,” Anna shrugged. “We asked if she wanted to seat with us but she just mumbled something unintelligible and made a beeline to the end of the table, and yesterday when we went up to our dorm she was already asleep. I don’t know why everyone keeps staring at her though, is she like, faamous on the wizarding community or something?” The twins shared an uncomfortable look.

“Um...Well...you could say that,” Olivia said quietly before taking a bite off her sandwich.

“Well, what do you mean?” Said Teddy impatiently. Oliver sighed and looked at him with a serious expression.

“Her parents were death eaters, Teddy.” Teddy’s mouth was agape as he raised an eyebrow, but when he didn’t say anything Oliver went on. “Corban Yaxley was one of the most vile, most loyal death eaters, and he was within Voldemort’s inner circle. He died at the Battle.” Okay, he wasn’t expecting that. He grimaced as he looked back at the girl. Even though she most likely wasn’t dark herself Teddy could only imagine how hard it must be to have such bad people linked to you.

“Um guys? I don’t wanna sound stupid but...what are death eaters?” Anna said and they all stared at her.

“You’re a muggleborn?” Teddy aasked and she nodded, a tinge of red covering her cheeks. “No need to be embarrased,” He added.

“Death Eaters are like magical nazis, but they hate muggleborns and muggles instead of jews and people of color and etc.” Olivia said, rather uncomfortably. Teddy had no idea what ‘nazis’ were, but he could only imagine they were horrible people.

“And they followed this guy called Voldemort who was like the magical Hitler, but he died at the battle of Hogwarts that happened eleven years ago at hands of Harry Potter, but don’t worry,” He said quickly seeing the look of fear and worry on the other girl’s face. “Most of them are either locked up or dead, and only lunatics think muggleborns are any less capable than pure of half-bloods.” 

“Oh” Anna said, not really sounding that reassured, but she didn’t go any further. Teddy was surprised, yeah sure, he didn’t know the name of most death eaters, only Bellatrix Lestrange and Antonin Dolohov, who had killed his parents, but now he realized that Harry never really mentioned names. He never asked though, he knew how it made him upset. 

The only time Teddy had seen him cryiing was when they were talking about the war after all.

“Umm...Anyway,” Oliver said, trying to cut the dense silence that had formed out of nowhere. “What’s our schedule?”

“Oh right,” Olivia said, looking relieved to change the subject. Even the next generation after the war was uncomfortable with the subject and jus recently did people actually started to use Voldemort’s name. “Er, we got double potions first followed by Herbology, double DADA, then lunch and history of magic and astronomy.” She said with a smile on her face. Teddy was really looking forward for today. He was especially excited about Potions, even though he was quite clumsy he still found the subject as a whole really interesting.

“When do we get to fly?” Oliver said, jumping up and down on his chair wth excitement. Teddy snorted at him.

“Only Friday, but look,” Olivia said as her brother frowned. “At least is a double period!”

“Ugh, I can I already see myself running head first into a tree or something. Either that or i won’t even manage to get the broom up,” Anna shook her head besides Teddy, running a hand through her hair.

“Oh, don’t think like this,” Olivia said. “It sure is hard to get the hang of t the first time, hell, I still haven’t got the hang of it, but with a teacher it will be easier. Besides, they’ll only start with easy things like going through a hoop or something.”  
“No, you don’t understand, I’m the most useless person at sports ever, and like, I haven’t even touched a bloody broomstick before, so that’s going to be fun...” They laughed and started chatting about quidditch for the remainder of breakfast, Teddy and Oliver going through the basics with Anna.

“Breakfast’s almost over. Shall we go to the Owlery before class starts?” Oliver inquired and Teddy nodded. He hadn’t written to his family yet, but he figured he could do it in between classes and then find the time to owl them out. It’s not like they would see it right now anyway, Harry and Gran worked and Vic had tutoring in the mornings.

“Um, you guys can go on ahead, I’ll save us seats on Potions, here’s the letter.” She said, before throwing the folded parchment to Oliver and dashing out of the Great Hall.

“But Olivia!” Oliver called out, but the girls was already out. “Oh for fuck’s sake,” He sighed before pocketing the letter and standing up. 

“Why is she so afraid of birds?” Anna inquired and Teddy looked at oliver, feeling curious himself. Oliver sighed and shook his head.

“when we were little our parents brought us to the park and, i don’t remember why, but this herd of pidgeons started attacking and flying after her and we were on a muggle park so my parents couldn’t just vanish them away, so she got scratched up pretty badly. It was pretty bad, but I thought she had got over this ages ago. Also Hoot doesn’t really like her either, but just because Olivia fears her. That Owl is sensitive as hell.” They laughed and made their waay to the Owlery.

“Wow!” Anna gasped as she looked around the hundreds of owls hooting and chirping. “I have never seen that many owls in my whole life! They are so gorgeous!” She mused and in an instant a jet black owl with bright green eyes placed herself on Oliver’s shoulder. If Teddy could guess it she was one hell of an expensive owl. The ones that weren’t flecked or anything were always the more pricey ones, not to mention that the owl was gorgeous.

“Oh, hey Hootie!” Oliver cooed as he scratched the owl’s head. The Owl stared at Teddy and the boy could swear he felt her eye pierce into him, almost as if scanning him. He gulped, feeling oddly nervous and then she hooted and went to Teddy’s shoulder instead. “Oh, she likes you,” Oliver said, sounding relieved. Teddy scratched the owl’s head while Oliver tied the letter to her leg.

“Got anything to send off?” He asked and Teddy shook his head, saying he would write later that day. Oliver nodded, tying up the letter to the owl’s leg.

“Send this to mom and dad, won’t you?” Oliver said in a voice you would usually only use wiith babies and really cute puppies. “Yeah you will! Who’s a good Owl?” Hoot hooted in approval and fled the Owlery. Teddy and Anna, who was transfixed by the owls until that point stared at him, and it didn’t take long for the two of them to burst out laughing. Oliver rolled his eyes and left the Owlery, the other two teasing him from behind.

“Okay, I get it!” He snapped at they entered Hogwarts once again. “I treat my Owl like a baby! Can we please bloody get a move on now? Look,” He looked at the big clock in front of the school. “Oh crap, we gotta hurry up if we don’t wannaa be late.” They ran inside, making their way to the dungeons.

Teddy didn’t quite know what happened, but on his mad dash, and being the clumsy shit he was he tripped on his undone shoelaces and fell. He was saved from falling face first on the hard floor by landing on something rather soft and warm. Just as quickly he realized that that ‘something’ was rather someone.

“Merlin! I’m so so sorry mate,” He stood up and offered a hand to the guy. He was significantly taller than him, but he didn’t look that much older. He was big and round and didn’t look at all welcoming. Tedy thought he looked a lot like a pug dog, but he didn’t reproduce his thoughts out loud.

“My shoelaces were undone and I just fell, I’m too clumsy for my own good,” He laughed awkwardly but stopped himself when he saw the look on the guy’s face. He offered his hand, but recoiled it when the bigger lad stood up on his own. “Er...” Teddy scrathed the back of his neck. “We should really get going then,” He pushed his friends forward. “Sorry again,” He said before quickly walking to the direction of the Potions classroom.

“Nice going, Ted,” Anna hissed and Teddy muttered an apology before they turned a corner, and, just as suddenly as he had fallen for a a first time, a pair of big hands shoved his back and he found himsefl falling a second time, Oliver catching him just before he hit the ground.

“What the hell did you do that for?” Anna spat at him. “Are you alright?” Teddy nodded, embarrased.

“D’ya think you can just shove on me like that and walk away?” He said, getting dangerously close to Teddy, who gulped but kept his pousure. With a sinking feeling on his gut he realied they were the only ones in the halway and if he decided to do something to them no one would be able to do anything.

What a nice, calm way to start his first day.

“He tripped!” “He apologized!” Oliver and Anna said at the same time. Teddy couldn’t help but feel a great deal of gratittude towards his friends, who were so quick to stand by his side, but hell would freeze over before he let them get hurt because of him. He put himself between them, unnoticeably making hmself a few inches taller.

“Look, it was accident. Why would I fall on you on purpouse?” Teddy looked at the boy, trying not to look intimidating, but also not afraid either. 

“What’s your name?” He asked and Teddy looked at him confusedly.

“Teddy Lupin,” He said and the guy raised an eyebrow.

“Lupin, eh?” He studied Teddy much like Hoot had, but he felt ten times more uncomfortable. “Do ya have any idea who I am?” 

“Now what the hell is going on here?” A new voice was added and Teddy felt immesely relieved when he saw Melinda approached them, wand in hand. “Why don’t you find someone your size to bully, Moreas? Are you that pathetic?” She growled at him, but the boy merely rolled his eyes.

“Oh fuck off, Pines. Don’t tell me you’re gonna go a defend that half-breed,” Melinda mouth was agape and Teddy just didn’t jump on the guy Because Oliver restrained him. Teddy was aware that Melinda knew about his heritage, but how in the hell did that bloke know? And beng called “half-breed” was extremely offensive in itself.

“Sod off before I call your daddy here,” She spat and Teddy could feel he tense up before leaving. “Git. Did he do anything to you? Are you guys alright.”

“Yeah,” Teddy said wth a smile. “Thanks, to you.”

“Don’t mention it, Ted. What’s a friend for?” She smiled back at him and held up her hand for the other two who had been watching the scene rather confusedly. 

“Oh, Anna, Oliver, that’s Melinda, she’s an old friend of mine.” The puffy haired girl smiled politely at them. “So what’s the deal with that prick?”

“Oh,” Melinda’s face seemed to darken. “That’s Henry Moreas, he’s a brat in my year. He thinks he’s the shit just because his dad is the defense teacher and has influence at the ministry, so he can basically do whatever he wants and no one would say anything about it,” She glowered. 

“So how come he was so afraid of you?” Oliver asked, and Teddy knew Melinda was holding back a smirk.

“Well, my uncle is the head of the school board, so that idiot knows not to cross my line. Not that i would be as pathetic as get my uncle involved like he would, but he is scared nonetheless.” She chuckled and looked at her wrist watch. “Shit, we’re five minutes late for first period. I’ll catch up to you later, bye!” She said as she ran to the opposite direction. 

The three kids ran as fast as their legs could carry down to the potion’s classroom, their faces flushed and their breath ragged. The whole class turned to lok at them and Olivia had an annoyed expression on her face. 

“W-We are sorry, Professor,” Oliver said when he managed to get his breath under control. “We uh-got lost.” He said, rather uncertainly, but the teacher merely smiled and nodded for them to sit down.

“Don’t you worry, I figured at least one first year would loose their track on their way. After all,this castle isn’t exactly easy to figure out in your first day, huh? With all the changing staicases and everything, just make sure it doesn’t happen again.” She nodded her head and they sat down. Anna sat besides Olivia while Oliver and Teddy sat with each other.

“Now,” She looked at the name call. “Mr. Murphy, Mr. Lupin and Miss Preston, am I correct?” The three of them nodded.

“Okay then, I’m professor Leroy and I’m the potions master at this school. I’m also the head of the slytherin house.” She smiled at them and Teddy smiled back. She seemed like a nice lady. “Now, let’s go back to where we left of, shall we?”

He waved her wand nd a bunch of words appeared on the chalk board. “No, don’t copy that now,” She said, as everbody gathered their quills and parchment. “I wanted to go over a few things before we get started. How many of you are muggleborns?”

Teddy was surprised at how many people raised their hands, and Teddy couldn’t help but think that Olivia was right; the vast majority of the first years were muggleborns. H shuddered as he thought about the reason to that.

“Okay, well, Potions is a tricky subject. You’ve gotta know the exact meaasurements, the exact amounts and exactly whata to do, or else you could have disastrous results in return,” Teddy’s stomahc dropped. Being the clumsy fuck he was there was no way he’d ever be able to do anything right, and he was so excited about potions...

“But, not to worry,” The woman said. “I’ll guide you way, my pupils. And I’ll make sure you succeed. Of course, mistakes are unevitable, but I’ll make sure you learn from them.” She gave a toothy, genuine smile to the class of mesmerized students. “And now, that being said, I want you to copy down this and we’ll move on to our first assignment.”

Teddy was sure he would grow to like her. She was extravagant, sure, but she had a good vibe to her. He could only hope the oher professors would be like her.

When he and the rest of the class finished copying down everything on the chalk board Professor Leroy went to fetch a a bunny. The bunny would be cute if he wasn’t covered in boils. “Now, class, say hi to Bucky here. He’ll be our guinea pig for today. You’ll be required work in pairs on a cure for boils, which you can findo on page twenty.” Evryone turned thwir textbooks to page twenty and professor Leroy went on.

“I’ll test everyone’s potions, grade it, and whoever manages to to the best one earns their house five points. Now, begin!” She said with a swish of her wand and immediatey all ingredients necessary were summoned on their desk. 

Quickly Teddy and Oliver set to work. Teddy crushed the snake fangs while Oliver chopped the horned slugs, both of them in silent agreement of what to do, and, quite quickly, they were finished with their potions. 

“Is it supposed to look like that?” Oliver asked. The potion was a pretty, ruby color. Teddy read the instructions.  
“ ‘When finished you boil cure should have a bright red color, much like a ruby, a ocasionlly bubble up.’ Yeah, think so,” Teddy grinned at Oliver who grinned back. Had them just aced their first potions assignment? They high fived each other and then glanced at the girls on the table besides them.

“It doesn’t look right. It says it’s supposed to be a nice red color, but it straight up looks like puke.” Anna grumbled and Teddy looked at their cauldron. Yeah, she wasn’t wrong.

“Did you guys put the right scales?” Oliver asked them, looking with disgust to the cauldron. “It says it’s supposed to be mermaid scales, not fish scales.”

“We put the right ones! I just don’t understand-” There was an explosion on the cauldron, and Anna, who had her face close to the pot, was drenched in greenishh-yellow goo. She started screaming and pus-filled red boils started to appear all through her face and neck.

“ARGH! IT HURTS!” She screamed, which aroused the attention of all of the students. Anna raised her hands to her faceand Teddy and Oliver promplty went to their table, not really knowing what to do.

“Oh dear,” Said Professor Leroy, who was by their side in an instant. “You two probably didn’t take the cauldron off the fire when you added the crushed fangs, did you? Miss Murphy, please escort Miss Preston to the Hosital Wing?” Olivia nodded and lead Anna out of the room.

Teddy could not believe his ears when he hear someone snickering from a table a feww seats behind. He had pretty good hearing so it was easy to listen in to the converstation.

“Not much of a difference, is it?” He heard a girl that recognize from the sortiing giggle. “I for one already thought she had boils covering her face. I mean, you could fry an egg with the amount of oil in that girl’s forehead.” The girls snickered and Teddy glared to no one in particular. He hated mean people, and Anna wasn’t even here to defend herself.

“That, kids, is what happens when you don’t follow the steps throughly.” The Professor sighed. “Poor girl, having boils grow on your face is not exactly pleasent...”

After a few more minutes the tests started. Two identical slytherin twn girls were up first. The bunny had only start to sneeze uncomtrollaby for a minute before it stopped.

“Oh, not this time girls, sorry.” Professor Leroy said sheepishly and the girls frowned and went back to their table. One of the looked at Teddy and their eyes met for a second before she quickly turned away and started whispering to her sister’s ear. Teddy frowned, that was weird.

“Seems like somebody’s got a crush on you,” Oliver whispered to his ear and Teddy raised an eyebrow. What was he talking about?

“What?” Teddy questioned but he never got a response as professor Leroy called them next.

“huh, that looks good, boys,” she praised and fed the bunny the potion. After aa few moments his boils vanished and Teddy and oliver hig five once again. “Alright! I’m afraid you two perfected it!” The professor beamed at them and they went back to ttheir seat. 

With a swish of her wand the boils were back on the poor bunny’s face. “he show must continue, I’m afraid. Miss Miller and Mr. Jackson please,” and two slytherins Teddy didn’t know went to the front just as Olivia entered the room.

“How is she?” Teddy asked as Olivia sat on her seat.

“Not good, but Madam Pomfrey said she would be okay to go by next period.” Oliviaa sighed and she looked at the now half empty cauldron of puke-like substance that sat on her desk. “That blows.” She said and Teddy nodded sympathetically.

Soon everyone in the classroom tested their potions and they had about five minutes left. “Okay,” Professor Leroy said to the class. “I am very proud of everyone, of course there were some mishaps,” She glanced quickly aat Olivia who lowered her head. “But that was completely understandable, but overall I’d say you were pretty good for the first day.” She smiled at the class.

“Now, Which pair won the five points?” She scanned the room, creating suspense, Teddy his fingers crossed under the desk. “Mr. Lupin and Mr. Murphy!” She said excitedly and Teddy’s hair suddenly went from sandy brown to blue in excitement and he couldn’t bring himself to care.

He was not expecting that, he thought he would be rubbish at potions, but here he was, doing a perfectly good job at it on his very first day. He could see that Oliver felt the same. Olivia looked dumbstruck and Teddy remebered she wasn’t there to see their potions perform.

Her awed expression turned into a smile and she looked proudly at her brother. He looked back and there was a silent interaction between the two that Teddy could only assumed was twin telepathy.

And then the class ended.

“Man, I still can’t believe it. We aced that shit mate!” Oliver smiled from ear to ear, he was quite pleased with himself. “Where are we headed to next?”

“Herbology,” Olivia said and they headed to the outdoors. It was a beautiful breezy day, not overly hot, just nice. They headed to the greenhouse where they would be having classes with the gryffindors. Teddy was excited about herbology, not for the subject in itself, but because of Neville, who he had to remind himself to call Professor Longbottom.

“Good morning children,” He said brightly, smilng at them. “As you may recall I’m Professor Longbottom, your Herbology master and head of the gryffindor house. Now, I know that a lot of you might think as Herbology as a dull and useless subject, but this subject is much more deeper than the study of plants,” He said.

“For example, it is necessary for you to have a good base in herbology to suceed in potions, not to mention telling apart something poisonous from something that isn’t and-” Neville was cut off by Anna, who looked extremely red in the face, making her entrance on the greenhouse.

She scowled, looking at the floor and he walked up to Professor Longbottom and handed him a note, and she quietly made her way to her friends. “Are you alright?” Olivia asked when she sat down.

“yeah, apart from the fact that my face exploded in painful boils and Madam Pomfrey put an ointment that burns like a motherfucker and now my face is as red as a tomato. Peachy,” She grumbled. Teddy would be quite pissed off too if it happened to him.

“Well, as I was saying, Herbology is as important as any other subject, but today, as it turns out, we will not be learning about plants. Wands out, if you please.” The class looked confused, but did as they were told.

“Today we will learn how to cas the spell ‘incedio’. This spell is used to cast flames, therefore, setting things alight. Our assignmetn for the remainder of the term will be to plant and take care of Devil’s Snare, which I’ll get to later, and knowing how to cast ths spell is necessary.” 

“Cool,” Anna whispered. Her face was almost back to it’s normal color now and she didn’t look as irritated anymore.

“Okay, watch me do it first,” He said and the whole class payed close attentio to Neville. He had a pot of something that looked like green tentacles. “This, everyone, is Devil’s snare. With the slightest of movements it could- do this!” He said, suddenly grasping the plant. In instants the plant wrapped itself tightly on Neville’s wrist. The whole class gasped, but Neville merely chuckled.  
“The more you move, the more it’ll latch to you, so if you ever find yourself in a sticky situation the best you can do is stay calm because it’ll eventually detach itself, but say you’re quite nervous-” Neville started to move his hand fast, making the Devil snare tangle around to up to his elbow. “And you just can’t stop moving. Tht’s when ‘incendio’ is useful. Now, pay attention, kids,”

Neville swished his wand in a quick motion and pointed it to the root of the plant. “Incendio!” a jet of flames shot from the tip of his wand and the plant detached fom Neville’s arm and shrivelled back to the pot. “You’ve got to be careful with this spell. I don’t expect you to produce anything more than sparks, but either way, be careful. We don’t want anyone’s robes catchin on fire, do we?” He said and the class chuckled.

For the first half of the class nobody could produce nothing, but then they slowly progressed to a few sparks but nothing more than that. Teddy was already getting quite frustrated.

“Well done!” Neville praised Olivia as she managed to produce a flame. T wasn’t much bigger than a the one of a match, but it was still steady. “Congratulations miss-?”

“Murphy, sir. Olivia Murphy!” She said, smiling, not taking her hazel eyes off the little flame.

“Right. Well, if I’m any judge I’d say Hufflepuff deserves a few points, huh?” Olivia looked up at the Professor, the flame dying out and if possible she smiled even wider.

“Good job, Liv!” Oliver patted his sister’s back. 

“Yeah, nice one,” Teddy smiled at the girl. No one managed to do any more real flames however, and sooner than expected, the period had ended. 

“Professor Longbottom is so cool!” Oliver stated and the group agreed. “He jokes around and all! Well, Professor Leroy is nice too, so so far so good, huh?”

Unfortunately they didn’t have such luck with Defense.

Turns out that the DADA teacher was Henry Moreas father, and said boy had already told his dad all about Teddy and his friends, because as soon as he saw his face he glared, and did not make things half easy for the group, not that they really did much in class as the Professor only made them copy off the chalk board.

Teddy was done, he was usually quick with writing anyways, so he started working on his letter to his grandmother. 

Dear Gran,

So, I’ve made it to Hufflepuff! Not gryffindor like I wanted to, but I’m glad to be in this house. I realize now that it fits me better anyway, and also I think I’d prefer being loyal and friendly than stupidly brave haha (don’t tell Harry- or aany of the Weasleys that!!)

Also, I’ve made some friends and they’re all in my house! There’s Oliver and Olivia who I met at the train and they’re really nice. They’re twins, but they’re like the complete opposite from each other, personality wise. If I’m honest they remind me a bit of Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione. 

There’s also Anna, We haven’t chatted all that much, but she’s pretty cool! She seems a bit hot-headed but she’s nice. Oh, I also met up with Melinda! Do you remember her?

My first day has been nice so far, me and Oliver earned five points to hufflepuff on potions, so tht was nice, and Neville is a really nice teacher!

Send everybody my love, tell Harry and Vic I’ll write to them as soon as I can and I hope you’re not missing me too much already. ;)

Lots of Love,

Teddy.

Teddy folded the piece of parchment and put it in his robes pocket, he’d send it later after lunch. 

The class ended and Teddy was starving at that pont. He quickly gathered his things, urging to go to lunch but Professor Moreas stopped him.

“Not so fast,” He glared at the group. “I want to have a chat with you four.” Olivia looked confuse, but the other three knew exactly what this is about.

“I’ve heard about the little incident you had with my son earlier today,” He said, calmly but Teddy could still sense the anger on his voice. Teddy just now realized how strikingly similar son and father looked.

“Sir, If I may explain-” Teddy started, but was cut off.

“No you may not.” The Professor said curtly.

“But-” 

“I don’t want to hear it. Just know that if you try anything else with my son ever again you’ll haave me to answer to, and I assure you won’t like that.” He said, his voice low, which send a chill down Teddy’s spine. “I hope that this little gang of yours won’t cause anymore trouble.”

“Off with you,” He said to the other three. “I want to have a private word with Mr. Lupin,” They seemed hesitant, but a sharp look from the teacher made them leave the room.

“Professor-”

“Save it, Lupin,” He snarled, making Teddy shrink. “I know who you are, nd you will not be corrupting my son,”

“What do you mean, sir?” Teddy was throughouly confused. What the hell did he mean?

“For your information, before I came to teach defense I worked at the ministry, in the magical beasts control area,” Teddy’s stomach dropped. Even though he wasn’t a ‘magical beast’ himself, his name was still there, somewhere, marked as “potentially dangerous” just because his dad was a werewolve.

“And for me it doesn’t matter what they say, you still have werewolf blood, you’re still a beast.” He said, barely above a whisper. Even though it hurt Teddy, he still wouldn’t show it.

“I don’t want you, or your gang of trouble makers near my son, understood? If I hear as much as a whisper that you’ve been giving Henry trouble, I’ll make sure that things won’t go easy on you.” Teddy raised an eyebrow at the middle aged man and smirked. “What is so funny?”

“Oh, nothing,” He said grinning. “I’m just sure Harry Potter, my godfather, would love to hear about our little conversation, wouldn’t he? Or maybe aunt Hermione? You know, the minister for magic.” the Professor seemed to pale, but kept his compusre, but Teddy could see right through him.

“I assure you, Professor, that me and my “gang” won’t go look for your son, if anything we want distance from him, but if he comes looking for us than there’s nothing I can do.” He slung his bag over his shoulder. “May I go now, Sir?” Professor Moreaas nodded gruffly to the door and Teddy left.

Of course, he didn’t plan on Telling Harry or Hermione anything, but it was good knowing he had that lously techer wrapped around his finger. But he would be lying if he said he didn’t feel uncomfortable talking like that to someone, especially a teacher.

He called you a beast, Teddy. He had to remind himself. He deserves it.

“What the hell was that all about?” Olivia asked, rather angrily, as they walked to the great hall. Oliver and Anna explained her everything, from Teddy falling on him from Melinda going to their rescue.

“Honestly...I’m not at all excited to meet that guy,” She said as shuddering.  
“Hopefully we don’t have to run in a lot. Moreas did tell our “gang” to stay away from his dear son.” Oliver chuckled.

“Gang huh? We’re not here for as long as 24 hours and we’re already in a gang. Mom and dad would be proud, wouldn’t they?” Olivia said and they laughed.

“Teddy? You alright?” Anna asked her friend, making the eys of the group turn to him. “You haven’t said anything since we left the class,” Teddy looked at her for a moment before he nodded slowly.

Truth was he was still mulling over what Moreas had said. That he aand his father were beasts, how Henry had called him a “half-breed”. Nobody had ever said such things to Teddy, but then again, the only people Teddy knew were either friends of the family or the Weasleys themselves, and Remus was a dear friend of all of them. Was that what people really thought about his dad? He knew that lot of people were prejudiced, but he thought this was something of the past.

“Are you sure mate?” Oliver asked with concern. You haven’t even served yourself, and your hair went white all of a sudden.” Teddy only now realized that everyone already had food on their plate and his was the only one still empty. Suddenly he didn’t feel as hungry anymore. Teddy ran a hand through his hair, turning it a nice blue again as started putting food on his plate.

“Yeah, I was just thinking about something, don’t worry I’m good.” He smiled at them. Nd started tucking in.

“What did Moreas want with you anyway?” Anna asked and Teddy shrugged. Now that he knew that prejudice was still a things he was much more hesitant to open up about his heritage.

“Nothing important. He old me to get away from his son and blah blah blah. I just don’t think he’s very fond of me,” Teddy chuckled slightly.

“Can I ask you something?” Oliver said, rather catiiously.

“Shoot.”

“What did Henry mean when he called you a half-breed?” Teddy almost choked on his food while Olivia dropped her for, not believing her ears.

“He called you a what?” She shrieked, arousing the attention of a few people nearby. “Teddy that’s highly offensive! You’ve got to tell someone!”

“Tone it down a bit,” He said, looking around. Soon everyone went back to their conversation. “Look, I don’t know okay? It’s probably because I’m a methamorphmagus. You know how some people are about even the slightes mutations. And I’m not telling anyone, it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does!” She hissed. “That’s just as bad as calling someone the “M” word!”

“Olivia, what good will it be?” Oliver said, irritably. “His dad is a teahcer, remember? It’s his word against ours.”

“But-”

“Look, just drop it. It’s our first day, I don’t want to start drama this early into the term.”

Olivia looked like she wanted to retaliate, but she istead merely just sighed and went back to her food.

“It’s your choice, I guess.” She said, Her eyes widening as she looked up at the ceiling ans sure enough Hoot, in all her jet-black graceness, came soaring up the sky, dropping a letter into Oliver hand aand resting into his shoulder.

“Thank you, Hootie,” Oliver praised, giving her a piece of bread. The owl hooted and fled oit of the great hall.

“That was quick,” Teddy commented.

“Yeah, we live here in Scotland.” olivia said, tearing the envelope open.

“Oh, I didn’t realized you’re scottish, you don’t have much of an accent,” Anna commented, but Olivia and Oliver shook their heads.

“We’re not scottish, we’re from London.” Olivia said, as her eyes went through the parchment. Teddy noticed the frown that deepened as she read each line.

“We moved here because my dad didn’t want to leave my grandma alone after my grandfather passed away,” Oliver looked over to his sister who had just finished reading the letter. “What does the letter say?” Oliver said anxiously, snatching the letter from her hand before she could protest. 

Oliver bit his lower lip as he went through the lines. “Bloody typical,” He muttered, more to himself than to anyone. He handed the letter back to Olivia who looked at him almost sheepishly. There was tension between the two and Teddy could sense it from where he was sitting.

“Oliver, won’t you come with me to the owlery? I finished the letter I’ve got to send off.” Teddy said. Oliver looked at him thankfully before the two of them made their way out of school.

Teddy noticed how Oliver’s jaw clenched and his knuckles were white from balling his fists too hard.

“So, wanna tell me what’s got your wand in a knot?” Teddy asked and Oliver shrugged.

“My fucking parents man...I love them, but sometimes I just wished...” He sighed, crossing his arms on his chest. “I dunno, they’re difficult people.” He stated. Teddy nodded. He didn’t want to be too invasive, after all he didn’t know the boy for so long.

“Was this about you and Olivia not being in Ravenclaw?” Teddy asked as they got to the owlery. Oliver nodded slowly, keeping his eyes trained on Hoot, who at the moment was too busy eting to pay attention to them.

“They have a way to make me feel inferior, even if she ended in the same house as I did, it’s just so frustating,” He said, Teddy frowned as he tied his letter to a flecked school owl. “She’s the apple of my parents eyes, an I thought that maybe...maybe they wouldn’t treat us so differently after the sorting,” Oliver wasn’t looking up anymore, instead keeping his eyes trained on his shoes.

“Why is it such a big deal anyway?” Teddy asked as the two of them watched as the owl soared away. Oliver sighed and stayed in silence for a moment. Teddy wondered if he should have asked anythng at all, but then Oliver spoke up.

“I come from a family of geniuses, and for the generation the Murphys have always been in Ravenclaw. My family takes pride in it, you know? And Jack might be an asshole, but he learned to count before he could even walk properly, Olivia learned how to write and read when we weren’t even fully potty-trained and even my little sister who at six reads a book per week,” There was a pause and Oliver looked down yet again. Teddy noticed he waas blushing.

“and then there’s me, the dumb ass of the family,”

“You’re not-” Teddy said instinctevley, but Oliver cut him off.

“Save it,” Oliver didn’t meet Teddy’s eyes. “I was always behind them, I realize that. And they say things, and they don’t even realize they’re offensive lke ‘we expected this from your brother, Olivia, but not from you’ or ‘let’s be realistic, honey, you’re not going to end up in ravenclaw’ “ Oliver huffed and fidgeted with his hands. “I just wished I could prove them wrong.”

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of, mate.” Teddy smiled at him and, despite himself, Oliver smiled back.

“And look, being different doesn’t mean being bad, don’t let you parents make you think that way,” Teddy said. “I mean hell, you’re talking to the kid whose hair changes when he’s too nervous, I’m as different as it gets,” They laughed. Teddy was glad he was able to lift Oliver’s mood.

“Let’s get back before lunch ends,” Oliver said and the two left the owlery. The girls were still at the table when they got back to the great hall, and Olivia nodded at her brother in a meaningful way.

The rest of the day wans’t exactly eventful. Both History of Magic and astronomy bore Teddy out of his mind and after a painfully long time it was finally dinner time. Teddy was positvely starving now since he had barely eaten lunch.

“Don’t choke,” Oliver teased and Teddy rolled his eyes with a smirk. After the four of them were fed they made their way to the common room. 

‘Well, today was good, everything considered,” Teddy commented and the others agreed.

“Still can’t believe how lousy our defense teacher is,” Olivia grumbled. “I mean, the best subject with the worst teacher. That’s got to be ironic,” They laughed and suddenly the door to the common room opened and Eleanor rushed inside. She was breathing heavily, almost panting as she looked down like she always did.

“Eleanor, is everything alright?” Olivia asked the girl, who quickly wiped her face with her hand and nodded.

“Y-yeah, everything -is g-great,” She stammered, and she looked up briefly, flashing a quick smile and storming to the girl’s dormitory. She clearly had been crying and Teddy felt a bit bad for her.

“What happened to her?” Oliver asked, half concerned and anna shrugged, but her eyes were still trained on the girl’s dormitory door.

“I dunno. Yesterday I thought I could hear her crying too, at like three in the morning,” Anna looked uncomfortable. “Should we check on her?”

“I dunno,” Olivia sighed. “Well I mean, we have the whole freaking night to talk if she wants to.” 

“I say you leave her be,” Oliver said. “people don’t like being pushed, ya know? Besides, you barely talk to the girl.”

“We’re her roomates!”

“So?” Oliver said before leaning back into his seat. “I haven’t seen her all day and she’s supposed to be in same classes as us. Maybe she just likes to keep to herself. I dunno, she’s kinda weird.”

“What’d you mean?” Teddy asked and Oliver shrugged.

“I dunno, she just...seems off, I guess.” Well, he wasn’t wrong, Teddy thought. Even at their first encounter at the train Teddy thought the girl was a bit strange. But not exactly in a bad way either.

But then again, none of them was exactly “normal.”


End file.
